


Claimed By Death

by shini_amaryllis



Series: The Tales of Andy Jackson-Black [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Ancient History, Andy avoiding Nico like the plague, Art, Bisexual!Nico, Friendship, Healing, Jason and Andy being bros, Justice, Multi, Past Lives, Past Torture, Photographer!Andy, Photography, Questing, Regaining Memories, Revenge, Traveling, artist!Nico, demigods kicking ass, forbidden love between Greece and Rome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-25 03:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 62,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4945297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shini_amaryllis/pseuds/shini_amaryllis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was his dream, he was her nightmare. Andy Jackson-Black should have known it would come full circle, things usually did. But Andy had never wanted to find herself with the person that inspired more fear in her heart than most. She hadn't expected to find herself face to face with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. And it was all Hades' fault. AxN Sequel to: Sting of the Blade</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the end of the last fic was pretty shocking, right? I've been building up to it for a year or so, but I always knew I was going to kill off Marlene and Callie…maybe that was just me deciding that I had too many OCs, but it worked out very well, I think.
> 
> I always knew that Callie was the bad guy, given how I'd placed a Greek in the middle of a Roman camp (for what end, Shini? Worry not, much is in store: as so many complained over the years)
> 
> Nico's still a bit away from showing up, but he will reappear I think around halfway through, if I've done my math right…if not, you will see him eventually, and it will be amazing, I promise :)

For the first time in two weeks, Carmella dreamed of her sister.

Andy was perched the fuzzy chair that Sally had gotten Carmella for her birthday, dressed in her usual. A leather bracelet around her wrist to hold her weapons in charm form, another one around her throat holding the beads from her years at Camp Half-blood, her crossed legs clad in her favorite ripped jeans that Sally had insisted had been ripped by the claws of a monster and Andy was just too stubborn to throw away, and wearing that beat up camouflage jacket that always seemed to fit her.

"Andy," Carmella whispered her name and Andy, who had been looking out the window, up at the stars, turned to give her a smile, that sarcastic grin that Carmella would have recognized anywhere.

"Hey, Mella."

Carmella flinched at the nickname, reminding her of Callie and Marlene far too much.

"Why won't you come back?" Carmella asked her and Andy's smile fell.

"'Come back'?" she repeated the words strangely. "I'm in a what? Healing state or whatever?"

"Coma," Carmella corrected.

"That," Andy nodded in agreement, "I haven't really  _gone_  anywhere, Mella, I'm  _still_ at the bottom of the Tiber River."

"No one can find you," Carmella pressed.

Andy rolled her eyes and snorted. "Probably Father's doing. He knows if you lot find me that you'll drag me up to the surface and I'll heal a lot slower. Trust me I'm safer where I am."

Carmella flopped back onto her pillow. "You're not even her," she grumbled, "you're just a manifestation of my memories, you're a  _dream."_

"Am I?" Andy replied, looking faintly amused. "Well, then, I suppose I'll just have to prove you wrong."

"Good luck with that."

A smirk brushed across her lips. "On my desk there's a small box, a wooden box…inside you will find the seal of Perseus."

Carmella sat up to stare at her.

"It was a gift of appeasement from Pluto after he had Winter killed," Andy continued, "Perseus gave it to me every time he went away to battle, because I was the one he trusted to run the city in his absence."

"So why tell me?" Carmella asked her.

"Because I was going to give it to you for Christmas," Andy expelled a loud sigh through her nose, "but you made me jump the gun, thanks for that." The dryness of her tone was so inexplicably Andy that Carmella clenched her fists into her sheets.

Silence descended upon them and it only seemed to affect Carmella, because Andy went back to looking out the window.

"I needed you here, you know," Carmella told her, blinking furiously. "And they told me you were MIA after stopping a flood."

"I had help," Andy said modestly. "And there wasn't any time for me tell you, or anyone else for that matter…New Rome would have been submerged and people would have died."

"I thought you weren't the type to be noble," Carmella retorted.

"I'm not," Andy conceded distantly, "but someone's got to play the hero if no one else is up to the job."

"Liar," Carmella accused. "You're not playing a hero, Andy, you _are_  one."

"That would depend on who you ask," Andy pointed out, leaning back in her chair and sighing for good measure. "But I suppose I'd fulfill the requirements for a tragic hero given everything that's gone wrong in my life."

Carmella arched an eyebrow. "That's blunt."

"I think the seawater's affecting my brain," Andy said, frowning in annoyance, "I'm coming across very Luna Lovegood-y." Not that there was anything wrong with the daughter of Apollo, but Andy just had a very different personality, was all.

She stood. "Maybe we'll be seeing each other very soon, but even if we don't, it's always nice to see your pretty face." Andy grinned widely, winking at her and Carmella glowered.

"I know you only do that to annoy me," she grumbled.

"Well, yeah, it's what I'm good at," Andy sniggered, resting her hands on her hips and it was hard for Carmella to believe that she was just a dream.

"Get some sleep, Mella," she said, pushing her lightly back against her pillows. "And keep an eye on Sirius for me, will you? I can't really spare mine at the moment."

"Sirius?" Carmella asked, blinking blearily up at her. "What're you—?"

But then her eyes slid shut and she knew nothing more.

Carmella opened her eyes to the sun filtering in through her window, waking up to a room empty of Andy, but the dream had seemed so real; it was deeply unnerving.

No one was yet awake, given just how early it was in the morning, so Carmella threw off her covers and opened the door quietly to tip-toe out of her room and into Andy's.

Her sister's room had been for the most part, undisturbed since they'd left for Camp Half-blood.

Her closet doors hadn't shut completely, her wand was resting on her bedside table, forgotten in the haste to leave.

But Carmella didn't focus on that, her eyes falling to the small wooden box that Andy had described. It had no decorations and was rather plain, but Carmella opened it and withdrew the only thing that remained within.

The seal of Perseus bore Medusa's head, for which he was famous for cutting off, and it was very old indeed. It was a wonder that it had remained so well preserved.

"Keep an eye on Sirius?" Carmella muttered to herself. "What does that even  _mean?"_

* * *

Percy played with the last soggy bits of his cereal, swirling them around in the milk aimlessly.

He'd gotten a feeling that something bad had happened two weeks previously after the events of Scylla and Charybdis. He and Annabeth had washed up at Circe's without Andy, Carmella, Clarisse, or Tyson. Eventually they had reached Polyphemus' Island, to find Clarisse and Carmella held captive and Tyson had joined them shortly, but there had been no sight of his sister.

But the quest was a success.

The Golden Fleece had healed Thalia's Pine and Tantalus was sent back to Tartarus with Chiron's exoneration of poisoning the tree.

Then an eagle had made it through the barrier, carrying a scroll with Carmella's name on it.

Percy couldn't quite erase the expression of distraught from his adoptive sister's face. The news of Marlene and Callie's deaths was quite jarring, but the news that Marlene was dead because of Callie, the secret traitor to Kronos, was even more shocking.

"So that's what she meant," Carmella muttered as she looked at the Daily Prophet, ordered all the way from London.

"What?" Percy asked, looking up from his depressingly soggy cereal and Carmella showed him the front page which bore the heading with thick black letters and a smaller subheading beneath it: _Sirius Black To Receive Trial, Who is the new Heir Black?_

A mug shot of what must have been Sirius Black (Percy had never really met the man in question) took up a half of the page while the other showed a tall woman in dark robes and a monocle over one eye shaking hands with a girl with light hair, but that was all that could be seen.

"'That's what she meant'?" Percy repeated as Carmella drew the paper back towards her with a frown. "That's what  _who_  meant?"

"Andy," Carmella said shortly, "I had a dream about her last night."

Percy's neck cracked as he whipped his head around to look at her. "You had a dream about Andy last night? What happened?"

"Not much," Carmella sighed, "she said she might be waking up soon, but I don't know if I should take that seriously or not. Maybe it was just a normal dream."

"Maybe it wasn't," Percy countered before adding, "why didn't she come to  _me?"_

Carmella offered no response to that, but they both knew what it was. Now Andy was down to one best friend (and in this case, adoptive sister) of her original three. Carmella was among the ones she trusted the most, and Carmella was there for all the ups and downs of her life, far even before she'd reunited with her family.

"How's Thalia doing?" Carmella asked instead.

It had been a shock for the Golden Fleece to work so well and the revival of Thalia Grace had startled many.

Carmella was more surprised at how similar she seemed to Andy, though Thalia had a much darker sense of style than her sister.

Thalia had asked about Andy early on, remembering her from when she came to visit her both when she was immortal and could actually see Thalia's spirit, and when she was mortal and just talked to the tree. The scowl that had formed on her face when she'd been told her cousin's fate hadn't been very pretty.

"She's staying at Camp for now," Percy said, "but I think she's planning on attending school with Annabeth when term starts."

That had to be the weirdest thing, going back to school after being dead for so long.

"Is Aeton still with Jason?"

Carmella chewed on the inside of her cheek, looking distinctly annoyed. "Yeah, he's refused to come every time I call…I even tried using Italian, but no go."

That was the most surprising thing, because when Andy had last disappeared –falling down into Tartarus with Jason– Aeton had stuck to Carmella's side like glue.

But for some reason this time he had chosen to remain by Jason's side instead, which had been a shocking turn of events for the son of Jupiter. Carmella thought he found the Hellhound-hybrid a bit unnerving at times, especially since Andy could understand him pretty well and seemed to be the only person that could.

It also could have been because he wanted to be closer to Andy, and when you took location into account, Jason was far closer to Andy than Carmella and the Jacksons. He took a trek down to where Andy had fallen into the Tiber River every day, just in case she managed to crawl her way up the surface, but nothing had come from it.

"Are Sally and Harry still sleeping?" Carmella asked Percy as he poured the remnants of his breakfast into the sink.

"I think so," he said, frowning as he looked down the hall, "I don't think Harry went asleep until late last night and Mom hasn't been sleeping too well."

Of course, that came as no surprise, after all, her daughter was currently resting at the river floor of the Tiber, which wasn't as bad as being trapped in Tartarus, granted, but being in a coma wasn't really a good thing.

"Harry actually wants to live here the whole time, did you know that?" Percy asked her.

Carmella snorted. "You haven't met his mum's sister, have you? She's not exactly what anyone would call  _pleasant,_  the same for her family…"

Percy gave a small smirk.

" _Thank the gods we're not related,"_  Andy had once said with a shudder _, "I'm not sure I'd be able to handle it. Petunia's just…she's got a one-sided view on things, like Harry and me, well, obviously I'm a bastard, and Harry's the kid of her sister who she wasn't even speaking to at the time of her death…toxic, that Dursley family."_

But Carmella was sure that whoever had put Harry with them had actually been intending on Harry being raised by them.

Too bad; Harry was a Jackson, after all, in all but blood.

* * *

Queen Andromeda was trembling, her fingers aching to smooth the sun-kissed hair from her husband's forehead, but she did not. Perhaps it was weakness, perhaps it was fear; Andromeda couldn't even differentiate between the two emotions.

She had always known that there would be a possibility that Perseus would not return from battle, but it had always been a fear in the back of her mind; Perseus was the son of Zeus himself, stronger than the average man by much.

Her voice left her, but in the end, she didn't really need it. These were soldiers and subjects that were loyal to her family, they knew what was needed to be done.

Perses had refused to leave the safety of his room when news of his father's death had reached Mycenae, but Andromeda knew it was more from sorrow of loss and fear of the new responsibilities resting on his shoulders.

The funeral pyre was built in a matter of hours, and in that time, Andromeda did not move, not even an inch. The tears on her face had long since dried by the time the fire was lit and her husband's corpse was consumed.

Perses returned to stand solemnly before his father's pyre, bowing his head to hide the tears in his eyes. Now fifteen summers, he looked more like his father in the early stages of their friendship, golden hair falling around his face but with the dark brown eyes of his mother.

It was times like these that Andromeda remembered the boy, not the man, who had captured the very essence of her soul. The fisherman she had run into when she'd fled the palace after her father gave her the news at the tender age of ten summers that one day she would be marrying her father's brother, Phineas, that was the boy who had earned her love without expecting anything in return.

But that boy, that man, was dead, and so was Andromeda's heart.

Night fell on swift wings and the only thing left to illuminate the spent pyre were the torches mounted on the wall.

The flames danced and curled in the cool wind as Andromeda lifted a hand to the king's seal that had found a familiarity at its place around Andromeda's neck, from the many times Perseus had left it with her.

In the other hand she held another of Perseus' gifts to her, a dagger. It was beautiful but weapons were not meant to be things of beauty, they were meant to protect and kill if necessary.

The blade was bronze, Celestial Bronze, forged in Mount Etna and cooled in the River Lethe in the Underworld, flat with a curved edge, and the hilt was smooth under her hand.

Andromeda felt as though she was drowning, as if to live was to die. Without Perseus…without her lover she could no longer breathe, her heart aching far too much for her to account for anything else.

And she lifted the blade and stabbed it into her side, gasping at the pain of the fire ripping through her, and then she pulled it out, crimson flowing from the wound, staining her peplos red.

She fell to the ground as her blood pooled around her, she was already fading when she heard a horrified yell and then a blur was lifting her from ground, trying to stem the flow of blood.

" _Mother, no!"_  Perses cried.

Andromeda gave her child one last smile, a single tear leaking from one eye before her eyelids slid closed and her chest moved no more.

When the guards arrived, it was to see the Crown Prince clutching the Queen's stilled form, sobbing terrible against her shoulder.

* * *

Deep in the Tiber River, Andy Jackson-Black awakened with a loud gasp, jolting in pain from the stabbing.

* * *

Reyna would be set for life if she never had to see a pirate again. It had seemed like an age before she and Hylla had escaped from their grasps, but in reality, it had only been a few weeks.

And Reyna was on her own now, since Hylla had left to join the Amazons and she had chosen the common route to Camp Jupiter.

It was more than she could have dreamed, a place to call home, more than Circe's Island had ever been, the Garden of Bacchus, the Fields of Mars, New Rome…it was all so perfect, barring the fact that they seemed to be in the middle of construction.

"Are you still building the camp?" she asked her guide, Senator Jason Grace of Fifth Cohort.

He hadn't seemed too pleased to escort a  _probatio_  around camp, but the Praetor had given a steely-eyed stare that had brooked no argument, but Reyna didn't mind him too bad, he seemed to be just focused elsewhere than the present.

The thing that unnerved her the most was his choice of animal companion, a Hellhound, or at least, something that was part Hellhound. But the animal, Aeton, he had called it, never strayed from his side.

"More like rebuilding," Jason corrected, "Tethys nearly drowned us when were closer to the Tiber River's main overflow, we almost didn't make it, we probably wouldn't've if Andy didn't drop everything to give us the warning."

"Andy Jackson-Black?" Reyna's memory supplied the harried girl with blue streaks in her hair.

His eyes widened in surprise. "You know her?"

"Not really," Reyna admitted almost sheepishly. "I only saw her for a few minutes."

"She's the senator of Fourth Cohort," Jason told her, "and she's currently in a coma at the bottom at the Tiber River."

Aeton whined on his other side and Jason ran his fingers through his fur in a comforting movement.

Reyna remembered the girl with green fire blazing in her eyes. "What happened?" she asked.

"She and a couple other campers with sea god relations tried to stop the wave that Tethys sent," Jason said, fingers tracing over the slash marks on his arm that indicated years spent at Camp Jupiter, Reyna, being a  _probatio_  didn't even have one.

"They failed?"

"They succeeded," Jason corrected, "but Andy pushed herself too hard and she fell into the Tiber…no one's seen her since."

Reyna couldn't help but frown thoughtfully, trying to imagine forfeiting her own life in order to protect the whole camp, and she couldn't help but think that was honorable indeed.

* * *

Andy felt like floating, and she'd always imagined that that was what dying felt like, so she had a brief mental freak out, key word being brief.

After a few moments, she managed to make sense of her surroundings…water…she was surrounded by water…okay, she could deal with that, she and water were best friends.

_But where was she?_

Her nautical compass took a few seconds to work, but then she came to the conclusion that she was at the bottom of the Tiber River, which was funny because Andy hadn't had any idea that it went this far down; she was actually a little impressed that it did.

Unfortunately for her, being underwater didn't help the weakness present in her limbs. She felt like she was jelly or her arms and legs were weighed down by lead, it wasn't really unpleasant, but it certainly didn't help her situation.

She curled her fingers inward, forming a loose fist, but her fingers felt bloated and her muscles felt strained.

It was going to take a lot of effort to get her to the surface, but Andy was up for the challenge.

She took a breath of water and kicked her legs violently before using a hand to channel the water beneath her to buffet her towards the surface.

* * *

Jason dismounted Aeton, following the line of the riverfront to where the water was the thickest.

He'd left Reyna at the Third Cohort's barracks after giving her the complete tour. She didn't ask too many questions, but he was sure that she probably would of the other occupants of her cohort, and that was fine.

Jason was a bit more busy trying to see if Andy had awakened yet, but his luck had long since fallen through. Some at camp theorized that she'd up and left, faking her death and abandoning them. That line of thinking had ended with a few broken ribs, a cracked cranium, and two broken femurs, all courtesy of Fourth Cohort who took any slight of their senator as a personal insult.

Besides, everyone knew that she wasn't dead, and jig would be up as soon as someone caught sight of girl with eyes like hers facing off against monsters, seeing as they never really took any vacation time off of trying to kill demigods.

No…Andy was more honorable than that. She wouldn't have come to warn them if she was planning on using the chaos to disappear.

Aeton barked and Jason jumped at the noise.

Two weeks and he still wasn't used to the Hellhound-hybrid that seemed to have imprinted on him. He was sure the only reason Aeton was sticking around was because he was waiting for Andy's return.

Aeton was padding towards the water's edge and Jason's heart jumped from his chest to his throat at the sight of a hand breaking through the water surface, a hand with a trident branded on it, a familiar marking that Jason would have recognized anywhere.

" _Andy!"_  He raced to Aeton's side, kneeling in the dirt to grasp the hand and pull at it, hooking it around his shoulders as Andy's head broke through the surface, shattered green eyes blown wide and lips parted as she breathed in and out deeply, coughing with every breath. "It's okay, I got you!"

He dragged her body out onto land and Andy's coughs faded into breathless gasps, as if she'd been running a marathon.

"J-Jason," his name broke over her lips, but before she could say anything else, Jason had glared at her.

"If you ever try to stop a wave like that again," he warned, "I'm shoving my spear in your spine."

Andy smiled widely and the arm around shoulders tightened.

And that was more than enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all liked the start of the next book, this is the one I've been waiting for for years now! But now it's here! :) Just so we're all clear, Jason and Andy will not be a thing while Nico's still suffering from amnesia, they are my brotp for this fic, but they're not romantic in the slightest.
> 
> So, like I said before, this fic will be encompassing the events of Titan's Curse and Battle of the Labyrinth, since they occur in the same year, and it is also the year that Andy and Carmella get to go to Hogwarts, so you'll be seeing a lot of demigod-witch/wizards featured in this establishment, including the bloke Carmella's mad for ;) and if Nico's going to show up, then you can all hazard a guess as to why…especially if he's got a wand of his own (made of yew like a certain distant relative) ;)
> 
> And Andy will officially meet Thalia, so that's going to be exciting!
> 
> I'm looking forward to the girls' fun at Hogwarts and I hope you all are as well!


	2. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the question has been posed: no, there will be no love triangles in this fic. Nico-Andy-Jason will not be a thing. Jason and Andy can be friends without liking each other romantically. I absolutely abhor love triangles, there are just too many love triangles these days, *shudder*
> 
> Jason will still be paired with Piper, because I love her too much, so no go with the OC ;)
> 
> Anyways, thanks to all of you for receiving the first chapter of the third installment of the Tales of Andy Jackson-Black series, I honestly wasn't expecting so many reviews, so thank you!
> 
> There's probably going to be a few more chapters before Carmella and Andy head off to Hogwarts, but it'll be good fun, don't worry. And lots of Camp Jupiter!

"Holy  _shit,_  is she breathing?"

Cassie was gaping in her doctor's scrubs when Jason brought Andy into the infirmary, cradling her form in his arms.

"Yeah," Jason said, looking down at his cousin, who had just fallen asleep once more, which was strange because she'd been asleep for the better part of two weeks, "where do you want her?"

"Put her here." Cassie directed him towards a nearby cot and Jason weaved around her to place her gently on it. "How did you find her?" she demanded, pulling a small light out to flash it in Andy's eyes, drawing her eyelid up in order to do so.

"She crawled out, I don't know, Aeton saw her before me." Jason nodded to the Hellhound-hybrid that had following after him.

"Aeton,  _out!"_  Cassie barked and the Hellhound-hybrid whined but complied as she slid up Andy's shirt. Her ribs stood out, prominent against her skin. "That's surprising."

"She hasn't had any food in two weeks," Jason pointed out.

"Yes, I'm well aware," Cassie said dryly, pulling out a stethoscope as she drew Andy's shirt back down, pressing it lightly against Andy's chest, checking for breathing sounds. "But she should be worse off, unless she somehow gained nutrients from the water, which isn't unheard of if you're the child of a water god…we need to run more tests, make sure she's doing all right and everything."

"What if she's not?" Jason pressed and Cassie sighed as she looked at him, him with his wide blue eyes, concern coloring them a brighter hue.

"Then we'll deal with it," Cassie said with eyes of steel. "Now please leave so I can work, or do I have to have the Praetor throw you out?"

Jason scowled at her fiercely but Cassie didn't relent, flexing her arm ominously. The skin near her shoulder was warped from a mishap with acid a few years ago and it did this weird bulging when she flexed it; she had an annoying habit of exploiting her ability to clear a room with a single movement.

"You  _wouldn't,"_  he accused.

"Oh, I would," she countered, before pointing at the door. "Now get out before you compromise my patient's care."

Jason released an indignant squawk, even as he moved to comply with her demands and he sat down heavily outside the room as Aeton came forward to rest his head on Jason's lap.

"Don't worry," Jason told him, "Andy'll be fine, just you wait."

Aeton gave a soft whine that Jason couldn't decipher but he would have bet an arm that Andy could.

But now it was time to call the Jacksons to let them know Andy was back among the living.

* * *

It was very early in the morning, but all the lights of the Jackson apartment were on and all the occupants of the apartment were currently in the living room perched around a cell phone that was on speaker phone.

"It's her? Is she all right?" Percy asked, pressing for more information after Andy's friend Jason had broken the news to them.

"Definitely her," Jason's voice uttered from the opposite end. "I don't know about all right, but she's alive."

"Is she hurt?" Sally asked with worry.

"Um, not physically," Jason replied with just a hint of evasion. "But Cassie's worried that Andy's been deprived of nutrients for too long. I mean, she's gone two weeks without food…she's really thin."

Carmella got the feeling that he was understating the damage, given the last time she'd seen demigods go without food for two weeks, they had gotten lost on a quest and had nearly died and had taken some time to recuperate.

"Cassie says she's not as bad off as she could have been," Jason continued. "I think she's going to give her some Unicorn Draught and Nutrient Potion to speed it up…Andrew is stopping by."

"Andrew?" Carmella questioned in surprise. Andrew Gattok was one of the demigods who had graduated school, like Cassie. Andrew was an American wizard on his way to becoming a fine Healer, and Andy was the one who had gotten him a scholarship in order to keep going to the Healer School of his choice.

Andy was very generous with her money, and she certainly had a lot of it. Andy hadn't had many allies when she'd first started at camp, but now was a different story. She'd earned a lot of favors over the years, and then she'd pulled that stunt with the wave that had saved everyone's lives…

"Isn't he supposed to be at Healer School?" she asked in befuddlement, eyes flickering towards her adoptive mother.

"He was," Jason gave a sigh, "but Cassie called and he dropped everything to come and make sure that Andy's all right."

"Well," Percy said, "that's nice of him."

"When can we visit?" Harry asked loudly.

"Not yet—" Complaints were voiced at that. "Look, I don't make the rules, and Cassie doesn't want anyone to compromise Andy's care."

"Like  _we'd_  do that," Carmella grumbled.

"That's just what Cassie said to tell you."

"Easy for you," Percy muttered, "you've actually seen her."

"Yes, I have," Jason said with a bit of annoyance, "because seeing her crawl out of the Tiber River with protruding bones is exactly how I wanted to start my day."

"Has she said anything?" Sally asked instead before her son could get fired up.

"Not really," Jason admitted, "she wasn't awake for very long…she recognized me and then she passed out…Cassie's considering putting her back in the water, but we're waiting to hear from Andrew."

"Putting her back in?" Carmella demanded.

There was rustling and voices on the other end. "Look, I've got to go. I'll call with another update, all right?"

Then the line went dead.

* * *

Andy awoke seated on a throne and with a killer headache.

She moaned, raising a hand to brush cool fingers against her throbbing head, waiting for the sensation to ease before she realized that something was off.

The last thing she remembered was Jason pulling her out of the Tiber River, relief in his eyes, but she was not at the Tiber River's edge, in fact, she was far from it.

It wasn't the first time Andy had dreamt about the palace of Mycenae, but last time Perseus had been there to give Andy a lecture, this time was alone.

There was a weight of a delicately carved circlet of olive leaves on her brow and she was garbed in a rich violet peplos that fell to her feet.

Andy tapped her fingers against the arm of her throne, the rings clicking against stone.

She didn't remember much about the palace, which was typical she supposed, given how her memory had been wiped when her soul had been washed clean in the River Lethe after her first death, but her memories had a habit of rearing their ugly head when she least expected them; perhaps it was because Queen Andromeda had felt so deeply about certain memories that they simply couldn't be erased, or perhaps it had more to do with the manner of her death, maybe the bit of Lethe on the blade had stayed in her wound and kept from forgetting.

Andy didn't really understand and she didn't care much for the particulars; it was for more intelligent people to theorize over.

Andy stood, stepping down from her seat before her feet took her out of the chamber and into the hall.

Everything seemed to be alight with a golden glow, like the sun was soaking in through the windows and cracks, but Andy couldn't see the sun.

She felt like the single shadow in a place illuminated by the sun, and if that wasn't a testament to the darkness she perceived within herself, then she didn't know what was.

Andy was almost certain she had no idea where she was going as she took the left and continued down the hall, but then she was just as sure that she knew exactly where she was going.

When she passed by an intricate mirror mounted on the wall, she paused, because the figure reflected was one she didn't recognize.

The green eyes were too large and the cheeks a bit sunken –which was probably what made her eyes seem larger than usual–, she could feel her ribs through the thin fabric over her stomach, and the blue in her hair was dulled and growing out. Andy had never had the same kind of muscles as Marlene, who it had always been obvious was one of the strongest girls around, but now she seemed to have lost any muscles she could have had.

But the thing that got Andy the most was that she didn't recognize herself in the slightest.

So she walked on, trying to put the image of the girl who had looked more lost than anything else.

Andy couldn't remember if Jason had told her how long she'd been out, but in all reality, it felt as though it had only been yesterday…yesterday when Callie killed Marlene and Andy killed Callie…

She'd thought she'd gotten away from the truly dark parts of her life…she hadn't killed demigods in years, not since she was seven years old. Nox Bacchry had broken her down and built her up into a monster and Andy had worked hard to regain her humanity after the events of her kidnapping.

But there were still days where she woke up, dreaming of the blank eyes and blood. It seemed Andy's destiny had always been to be stained with blood.

The golden hue that had once been shining over the palace had begun to fade as Andy took the steps into the dark dungeon.

There was a torch in Andy's hand, but she didn't quite remember picking it up, but this was a dream and those types of things tended to happen.

Mycenae's dungeons were deep, yes, but the tombs were the ones of the most interest, mostly because they appeared to be hidden.

Andy pressed on a symbol of a lotus blossom, the symbol of Cepheus, Andromeda's father, and the wall welted away to reveal a hidden passage that honestly hadn't surprised Andy in the slightest.

 _I know the way to my own tomb_ , was the strange thought that came to Andy and she blinked as she rounded the corner just in time to be shot through by several arrows.

But they went right through her so Andy didn't feel a thing.

She walked through the next volley, thinking it was an awful lot of security in tomb, clearly Perses hadn't wanted anyone robbing his mother's tomb. But still, it seemed extensive.

Suddenly Andy was not being fired upon by arrows but at the tomb, standing outside a massive door that had been opened and there was someone inside.

The man stood and turned to see her, eyes the exact color of wine, eyes that Andy had feared for all of her childhood.

 _"You!"_  Andy accused, furious even as his face shifted slightly to that of an older man with a scraggly beard and eyes a familiar brown. "What?"

And that was the last image she saw before her world faded to black.

* * *

A matter of hours had made quite an impressive difference to Andy's health. Cassie knew Nutrient Potions weren't designed to work as fast as Andrew's had, but Andrew was something of a mad scientist himself, or as much like a mad scientist as one could be when they were a wizard.

"She's doing better," Cassie remarked when she came in a few hours later, pleased at the progress.

"Yes," Andrew agreed. "And lucky she was able to absorb nutrients from the water."

Andrew was a legacy of Apollo, not unlike Octavian, (the little bastard that Andy would like to shove a blade through his spine on a good day) but Apollo's coloration was clearer in Andrew than it was in Octavian, with his golden blonde hair, even if his eyes were a bright hazel instead of the Apollo kids' typical blue.

"We're not going to put her back in the water?" Cassie asked curiously, doing a rough check of the senator's vitals.

"I can't imagine what else she could get from the water that we aren't giving her," Andrew replied with a shrug, pressing the back of his hand against Andy's forehead. "She's a little hot…"

"Don't tell her that," Cassie said with a smirk that made her eyes twinkle, "she'll never let you live it down."

Andrew rolled his eyes for good measure. "I'll get you for that," he warned.

" _Ooh!_  Big talk from the man who loses every argument with his girlfriend," Cassie grinned widely and Andrew chose to ignore her instead.

Andrew and Cassie were famous for being notorious saps for each other, but nothing was going to compromise the care of the patient lying on the cot between them, not even their flirting.

The Praetor was demanding updates every hour, but Andy hadn't awakened since her arrival, which was worrying.

"Do you think her waking up at the Tiber River was just a one-time thing?" Cassie asked. "Maybe she's gone back to being in a coma?"

"I don't think so," Andrew disagreed. "Why would she wake up just to go back to sleep?"

"Indeed," an unfamiliar voice commented behind them and both Healers turned towards the speaker.

She bore the form of a teenager, but Andrew knew instantly that she was not, he remembered that she was not even close to being the same age as a teenager. The Greek peplos she was garbed in was so dark a blue that it was nearly black, but her hair was like midnight, with stars strewn through it like the night sky, and her piercing eyes were sharp and impossibly blue.

"You," Andrew uttered, the word barely leaving his lips, "you're Asteria."

The titan of dark prophecy rarely appeared, and usually it had something to do with Andy, given she was the girl's patron, or so it was said. Andy was the first demigod that Asteria had shown an interest in since the birth of her daughter Calliope Evans (borne of her Roman aspect, Delos, but it was simpler to call her Asteria, her Roman name had been, for the most part, disregarded), and the rumor was that the only reason that was was because Andy was part of one of her prophecies, as rare as they were.

But Asteria's prophecies often foretold doom and destruction, and that had freaked a lot of people out when she'd appeared years ago for Andy.

Asteria tilted her head slightly, eyeing him impassively. "I am," she agreed, before stepping forward in order to see her charge clearly.

Cassie dropped a hand to the dagger hidden at her waist when Asteria lifted a hand to rest on Andy's forehead, and another to rest on her stomach.

The pair watched in fascination at the hands glowed with power, rather unlike the healing magic that many demigods possessed. Andy took a deep inhale of breath and Andrew's lips parted in surprise as he watched the cheeks that had been just a bit sunken fill out and he was sure that if they lifted her shirt, her ribs wouldn't be visible.

Asteria moved to whisper into Andy's ear a choice few words that neither could hear before disappearing in a haze of mist as her charge stirred faintly in her slumber.

"One day we are going to find out why that titan is so damn mysterious," Cassie muttered.

"Doubtful," Andrew disagreed.

* * *

He was older than Sally had been anticipating, but, then again, those at Camp Jupiter had a longer life expectancy than that of their Greek counterpart.

Andrew Gattok must have been in his early to mid-twenties and he was still wearing scrubs when he'd knocked on the door, having high-jacked Aeton from Jason's side to make a house call.

"You're Andy's mother, yes?" Andrew inquired, surveying her strangely.

"Yes," Sally said in confusion, "why?"

Harry and Carmella were still asleep had Percy had disappeared briefly back to Camp Half-blood (which he had left even though the summer session wasn't yet done, given the events of the past two weeks).

"Sorry," he said with a small chuckle, "there's just a circulating theory that she either sprouted from a spring or was the daughter of a nymph and just didn't want to admit it."

"Oh," Sally gave a small laugh of her own, "no, sorry, very human."

Andrew smiled. "Demigods love to tell tales, so I'm not really surprised…anyways, she's the reason I'm here."

"Jason said she woke up," Sally said, swallowing thickly, "is she all right?"

Andrew shook his head in annoyance. "Of course, he did," he muttered before clearing his throat. "She's doing much better…we were going to keep her under observation for a few weeks to make sure she got all the nutrients she needed, but Asteria intervened."

Sally blinked owlishly in surprise.

"She helped the process along," Andrew continued, "so we're planning on sending her home tomorrow, actually."

"Really?" Sally's smile brightened her whole face. "And she's doing better?"

"Much better," Andrew promised, "but she is very weak…I suspect she might spend the first few days sleeping off all the potions we've pumped her with, but then she's going to want to build up her strength again."

The mortal sighed in relief. " _Thank you,"_  she said fervently, "for helping my daughter."

He gave her a wry smile in return. "I owe Andy a lot, trust me, this isn't even close to returning the favor."

And then Andrew mounted Aeton to return to Camp Jupiter for one last check up on Andy.

* * *

"If you try to carry me, Jason Grace,  _so help me_ , I will rip out your liver and feed it to Aeton!"

Clearly being in a coma hadn't done anything to curb Andy's temper, but Jason knew her too well (which was ironic given their past as violent rivals) to take her seriously.

"All right, all right," he muttered as he helped her off Aeton, "I'm just saying don't push yourself, is all."

"You've been saying that for an  _hour!"_  Andy complained, straightening the crutches under her arms, her fingers sparking with irritation as Aeton shrank to a more manageable size for a dog, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he panted before uttering a soft growl towards his mistress.

"Yes, Aeton," Andy said impatiently as she took her first step, "you can sleep in my room."

"Okay, does he actually talk to you and you can understand him or are you just pulling my leg?" Jason demanded looking between the witch and her familiar.

"That would be telling," Andy replied with a wide grin as she took another step.

The muscles of her arms and legs hadn't been in use for the past two weeks and there was a negative effect to not using muscles. Andy's became very strained from prolonged use, so she was going to have to look into that.

Jason stood off to the side as Andy limped forward at a rather slow pace, but he didn't hasten her into speeding up; who knew what she would do to him with that crutch? Jason wasn't ready to risk brain damage.

"Do you think they're mad at me?" Andy wondered a few moments later, her tone quiet, keeping low and uneasy.

"I'm sure they're just worried about you," Jason assured her, but it didn't do much to assuage her fears, even as they found themselves in front of the blue-painted door.

Now was the time for the moment of truth…

Jason rapped sharply on the door and Andy swallowed thickly as the door was flung open immediately and her mother, her beautiful mother stood framed where the door had previously been shut.

Sally's eyes were a bright and glinting blue and her loose brown curls streaked with a few grey strands were hanging over her shoulders and the bright smile on her lips was like a cocoon of warmth that made Andy want to melt.

"Mum," she croaked before Sally had swept her into her arms.

"Oh,  _sweetie_ , thank the gods you're safe!"

And Andy clung to her like she had when she had been told Nox Bacchry was still alive. She felt like she was seven years old again, afraid of the world and its entirety, but Andy didn't care.

Sally drew back, her eyes misty and Andy pretended not to notice as she grasped her cheeks gently. "Are you all right?"

"I'm—" Andy's lower lip trembled and she thought about Marlene and how she had held her until her heart stopped beating. "Marlene's dead, Mum," she whispered, her voice shaking.

Sally kissed her forehead, her whole expression softening before she held her and rocked her. "I know, sweetie."

Andy had never had a proper time to mourn and the realization of her friend's death hit her like a train collision as she sobbed into Sally's shoulder.

Jason opted to sneak past the pair with Aeton at his heels, sitting down on the first available chair he could find.

Percy was standing, apparently waiting for his chance to hug his sister, but Carmella was sitting, hiding her face in her hand, and Jason suspected that Marlene's death and Callie's betrayal was still so fresh in her mind (he knew one of the reasons she had stayed away was the fact that the camp hadn't been able to stop talking about the incident). Harry was hovering close to the wall, clearly choosing to wait to see his favorite aunt.

It felt like an age before Andy's tears had stopped flowing and her breaths had calmed, and then she parted from her in order to hug Percy.

Jason had never had siblings, but it had been clear when he first met Percy Jackson ("Just Jackson," Percy said with a smirk, "no Black, Andy's just special.") that he was close with his sister and he held her tightly in his arms, his cheek resting against the top of her head.

He also suspected Andrew had warned them not to question her too much about what had happened, sometimes full-frontal assaults didn't work as well as people hoped.

Green eyes raked over her, looking for any injuries, but the only injuries she currently possessed were beneath the skin.

"Next time, I'll help you stop a wave," Percy promised and Andy choked on a laugh.

Carmella was much more reserved, even as she enveloped Andy in a hug that she felt she did not deserve. "It's all right, you know," she murmured, "I miss them too."

Andy bit her lip to keep from breaking down into another blubbering mess.

"I'm sorry," Andy whispered, "I-I should have seen it earlier."

"Don't be stupid," Carmella admonished, blinking furiously, "Calli–Evaine…Evaine played us all, that wasn't your fault."

Unfortunately, Andy didn't look convinced, but she still caught Harry as he bounded forward to throw his arms around his favorite aunt.

They were a bit unconventional, a mortal, two demigods, and a legacy, but they were Andy's family and she was glad they were there to help her stand on her own two feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visitations from other friends, including Thalia, will be in the next chapter, so that'll be exciting, and then there'll be some stuff about Camp Jupiter, which I'm psyched about, because Andy spends far too much time at Camp Half-Blood…
> 
> There might be a few small scenes about Nico and Bianca before they're actually introduced, but I'm not entirely sure yet…we'll see how it goes!
> 
> And who could Nox really be? Food for thought ;)


	3. New Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, apparently lots of love concerning Thalia and Andy, but you've got to admit blonde Superman (Jason) and female Aquaman (Andy) are pretty kickass together.
> 
> To the person that asked: Callie's last name is Evaine, which is why Andy's calling her that.
> 
> And I'm so glad you all are enjoying the fic, and since someone wanted a clarification: Yes, Nico is not straight, in this fic he's bisexual (he might actually be in the books too, given how he reacted around Annabeth and Juniper in the Last Olympian, but since its never really said, we assume he's gay), which is something that will be shown later in the fic. I might do a few scenes from Nico's perspective when Percy first shows up, so that'll be fun.
> 
> But no Andico scenes for awhile! And then there will be lots of awkwardness, which I absolutely love! XD

It had been two very long weeks since Andy had been in her room and now it felt like she was looking on it with new eyes.

Green eyes roamed from the trident hedged in the corner, behind the cozy armchair that she'd gotten from Grimmauld Place, to the pictures she had resting on the desk that had been untouched since her and Carmella's final exams and expulsion. The image of Callie's laughing face made Andy want to throw the picture out of the window.

She shut the picture against her desk instead, sitting down on her bed, twisting the simple silver ring around her finger.

How could she go back to her old life when it seemed like so much had changed? The girl that had once slept in this room wasn't the one that had returned.

She stood again, considering one of the pictures she had on the wall in a blue frame of the whole Jackson family, with Sally having her arms around her three children –adopted or not– and self-proclaimed grandson.

"I think your mother is making you something called Sheppard's Pie," Jason spoke behind her and Andy jumped violently at the suddenness of his voice, turning so softly on her heel that her legs seemed to weaken to a moment and the dizziness that she'd been feeling went right to her head.

And for a blessed moment Andy didn't see Jason, she saw the familiar face of a man with the same eyes as bright as the sky and hair golden like the sun, but then the image faded.

She blinked and her friend's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I think all the potions are making me see things," Andy said, rubbing at her temples in a slow circular motion.

"Are you going to be all right?" Jason asked instead. "I mean, I can stay if you want."

Andy's lips curled upwards into a small half-smile. "I'll be fine," Andy said, but Jason wasn't convinced and Andy deflated slightly, "I just feel…like I'm stuck where I don't belong."

"What're you talking about?" Jason asked. "You love your family, you love spending time with them."

"It's not them, they're wonderful," Andy said quickly and Jason was struck by how truly forlorn she was. The girl in front of him barely resembled the girl he'd fallen into Tartarus with, but they'd both done some growing up since then. "It's me…I feel all  _wrong."_

She dropped her hand to her side, to where her kill-wound from her previous life was. "I shouldn't remember all that I do from back then, but I do, and I don't really like what I remember." She sat down on her bed again, green eyes dark.

Jason expelled a low sigh before moving so he was sitting beside her. "Look," he said, "there's nothing wrong with you, and there's nothing wrong with remembering…besides, even a queen has bad days, right?"

"I suppose," Andy conceded, tangling a few fingers into her hair, examining a blue strand with vague interest. "But my past has a nasty way of rearing its ugly head in the least helpful way."

This was very true. Andy had thought Nox Bacchry was a thing of the past, dead and forgotten, when he'd reappeared.

"Praetor wants to see you," Jason had to add, "as soon as you're able, but don't rush it, Matthew says your health matters more."

Andy gave him a flat stare. "I'm physically fine, Asteria patched me up, remember?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "I know that, but he doesn't." There was a conspirator-like gleam in his eyes that made Andy narrow her eyes suspiciously.

"Jason Grace," she said, a slow smile spreading across her lips, "did you  _lie_  to your commanding officer?"

"I would _never_  do such a thing," Jason quickly denied.

But Andy was pleased all the same. Using her health as an excuse to spend more time with her family would be nice. Yet, Andy still felt the need to do something; staying at home had never been something she was good at and it was something that she was sure that her mother would attest to.

"I should start training again," she said thoughtfully.

"You just got out of a coma," he reminded her, "it's probably not the best thing to do."

Andy scowled at him. "I'm out of practice, I need to train to get back in shape, besides, I've gotten soft."

"Really, I hadn't noticed."

Andy ignored his words and the manner in which they were spoken in, which was very sarcastically.

"I need to get in touch with my Roman roots," Andy continued. For too long she'd neglected her Roman side to assist those that were Greek. She had barely been to Camp Jupiter more than a few times a year; she had forgotten her responsibilities as a Senator to Fourth Cohort. "I've been going easy."

"The last person you fought you skewered with a trident," Jason mentioned dryly.

Andy closed her eyes, trying not to think about that day.

"Dinner!" came her mother's voice and Andy's mind drifted.

* * *

"Jason, why don't you stay the night? The couch is always free."

Jason's cheeks flooded with rouge and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, looking to the scene before the fire, with Andy with her head resting on Percy's shoulder as she dozed, Carmella on her opposite side with Harry sprawled against her hip.

"This is a family thing, I don't want to intrude," he said.

"You're her cousin," Sally said without blinking and Jason stiffened. "And you brought her back to us."

"That was nothing," Jason said sheepishly. "Nothing she wouldn't have done for me."

And it was strange how true that statement was, given their past animosity.

"I'm needed back at camp, anyways," Jason added, but even it sounded like an excuse to him. "Tell Andy I'll see her around."

And Aeton, after a bit of coaxing, agreed to return him to California, so he left Andy to her family matters, thinking just how lucky she was to have such a family.

* * *

Andy slept restfully without a single dream, which was a first for her, to be sure. Most of her dreams these days had to do with either Saturn or her time as Queen Andromeda, and Andy wasn't entirely certain which one she preferred more.

She opened her eyes at the sound of a soft knock on her door and her mother's head peeked in with a smile on her lips.

"I hope I didn't wake you, sweetie."

"No," Andy said, rubbing at her eyes and yawning widely, trying to rid her body of sleep as she sat up in her bed. "I was already awake, why?"

"I was going to make some pancakes," Sally said and Andy became embarrassed.

"You don't have to," she said quickly, "I'd be fine with cereal, you know."

"Yes, I know," Sally said in the all-suffering voice she sometimes had to adopt when speaking with her daughter who could prove to be very trying at times. "But then you wouldn't get any chocolate chip pancakes."

Andy perked up at the mention of the type of pancakes that were her favorite before she deflated with a scowl. "All of you are walking on eggshells around me." And she flopped back onto her pillow while her mother sighed, coming fully into the room to stand by her daughter's head, smoothing the pale locks from her face.

"Sweetie…we've been worried about you for two weeks…and we know you're still dealing with what happened to Marlene and Callie," Sally spoke with a gentle voice and Andy kept her eyes focused on the ceiling.

If she thought too much about Marlene she would turn into a crying mess, and Andy really didn't like that. Andy rubbed furiously at her eyes to keep the tears from showing up, but it didn't really help.

"Do…do you think I'm a bad person for killing Evaine?" Andy asked her, and she still couldn't bear to say Callie's name.

Sally's eyes were pools of sadness and understanding but Andy wasn't entirely certain her mother could understand what she was feeling.

"Sometimes…we find ourselves in impossible situations," Sally said carefully. "You're not a monster, Andy…you're a good person who's had a very difficult life."

Andy breathed out through her nose and her mother kissed her forehead.

"Why don't you take a shower, sweetie?" Sally offered, "I'll have some pancakes done by the time you get out."

Andy pulled herself out of her bed when her mother left, walking on light feet to her closet and grabbing her clothes at random and making her way into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and sitting down hard on the floor, running a shaking hand through her hair.

She had avoided thinking about Callie for as long as she possibly could, but now she couldn't stop thinking about the trident she'd shoved into her traitorous friend's chest and how quickly the light faded from her eyes.

But it wasn't the first time Andy had taken a life. However, it was the first time she had taken the life of one she had called friend, so Andy turned on the shower, and allowed the noise to hide the sound of her sobs as she sat and cried for Marlene for the loss of her friend, and for Callie for the sting of her betrayal.

When Andy stepped out of the shower, her skin was red from the heat and her crying, but the heat masked her tears.

She pulled on her clothes but they seemed a little loose; it seemed that Asteria hadn't fixed her completely. Then she leaned close to the mirror, inspecting her hair closely, frowning at the sight of where the blue had grown out before she pulled out her dye bottle from under the sink and her wand. In a few short minutes, the blue was back to her roots and brighter than ever.

When she opened the door, she was accosted by a girl with bright red curls and paint streaked across her cheek.

" _Andy!"_  Rachel threw her arms around her fellow witch, hugging Andy so tightly that she was almost certain that her ribs were bruised from the assault. "Thank Merlin you're all right!"

"I might not be anymore," Andy gasped, rubbing at her chest over the now-bruised ribs.

"Oops," Rachel giggled. "But you're all right, right? Your overprotective brother wouldn't tell me anything."

" _Hey!"_  Percy scowled at her from the kitchen as the girls came into the open. "You know I can hear you, right?"

Rachel winked and Percy groaned.

"I'm fine," Andy sighed, "nothing a few training sessions won't fix."

"Hey, you should teach me a few moves," Rachel said, grinning and miming punching something. "Monster-slayer-y stuff."

"I'm pretty sure that punching a monster is only going to make it mad," Carmella muttered around her cup of milk.

"Because nothing says you're a free spirit like killing monsters as a clear-sighted mortal," Andy said dryly and Rachel positively beamed.

"Exactly!"

* * *

Andy hadn't stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood since she'd left with Carmella and Clarisse on the quest but she still felt a ripple of unease as she passed by Thalia's Pine, one that said she was a foreigner that didn't belong, and such had always been the case, so Andy learned to ignore the feeling.

Andy was, after all, a Roman at heart, and living on the Greek side of things wasn't going to change that.

"I still don't understand why you're leaving." Percy's eyebrows were furrowed together as he walked step in step with his sister. "You know how much monsters love us!"

Andy arched an eyebrow. She did know that, very well, actually, seeing as she had been in the demigod lifestyle far longer than her brother by far. "It's not like I'm stopping being a demigod," she said, elbowing him in the side. "There's a demigod faction in California that I'm rejoining…I actually haven't been back in awhile, I mean, apart from the whole stopping a wave thing."

Percy stared at her. "I'm starting to think being nonchalant about near death experiences is a family thing."

A devilish grin lit her face. "Aw, Percy, such a big boy word, I'm so proud!"

"I'm older than you!" Percy said, looking stung.

Andy grinned even wider, curling her arms upwards into the typical strength pose. "But not stronger," she sang.

Ironically, that was never a sore point between the siblings, possibly because Percy knew she'd been doing this far longer than him and had far more experience (which wasn't necessarily a good thing, given the common trend of chaos in Andy's life).

Her face settled into a calm mask as they came into the center of camp and a startling number of eyes were turned on Andy. She had never liked being the center of attention, but that had never stopped her from being so…like when Bacchus repaired her mind and she'd stepped foot out of the infirmary ward to find people gaping at her everywhere she went, and now it was the same here.

Her fingers sparked slightly before she reached towards Percy's, needing to feel her brother's familiar presence. And Percy took her hand without even a questioning glance, for which she was grateful.

"Don't worry," he told her quietly, "they won't come at you all at once, Chiron had words with them all."

Andy nodded as they continued their way to Cabin Three. She had been informed of everything that had happened while she had been unconscious, well, everything that had to do with Camp Half-Blood, at least (she would find out everything to do with Camp Jupiter when she returned to it).

Chiron's return was no surprise, given how good a trainer of heroes he was, and she was annoyed to discover that it had been Luke who had poisoned Thalia's Pine –her friend poisoned her! After the explosion on CSS Birmingham, Carmella and Clarisse were swept away together to Polyphemus' island (Andy gathered Clarisse had been quite crass in her insults towards the Cyclops), and Percy and Annabeth had found them at Circe's Island with Tyson disappeared. Needless to say, the quest had been completed and Clarisse had taken the Golden Fleece back to camp, where it had healed Thalia's Pine a little too well.

Andy hadn't seen any sight of her cousin as she distantly remembered her.

"I would've thought Annabeth would be around," she mentioned as she collected her things, thrusting them into her rucksack.

"Oh, she is," Percy said, rubbing the back of his head as he watched her pack. "But she wasn't sure how you'd react to seeing a child of Athena so she's giving you some space."

Andy swallowed thickly, seeing the grey eyes in the back of her mind that she could no longer associate with anyone but her traitorous friend.

She pushed those dark thoughts back as she dug under her pillow on the lower bunk to pull out the dagger that she'd left behind when she'd departed with Clarisse and Carmella.

"You always sleep with a dagger?"

Andy smiled wryly. "Call me paranoid."

Her brother rolled his eyes for good measure and there was a knock against the cabin's open door. Both siblings turned to see who it was and Andy very nearly froze.

"Hello," said Thalia Grace, with a voice gruff from years of not being used.

She had the same stormy blue eyes as her brother, but that was where the likeness ended, because in the stead of Jason's blonde hair, Thalia possessed spiky black. Andy would have never known that she had freckles across her nose from her time seeing her in her spirit form during Andy's tenure as a minor goddess.

The dark style she had was something that Andy could understand, preferring dark colors herself, but it seemed to her that Thalia was closer to goth than punk (which was probably what Andy could identify the most with).

"Thalia," Andy spoke her name so quietly that it was very nearly a whisper and the daughter of Zeus smirked.

"That's me," she said before releasing a grunt of surprise when Andy threw her arms around her neck, hugging her tightly.

"I'd heard you woke up," Andy whispered.

"Same as you, right?" Thalia said once they parted. "I heard you knocked yourself into a coma."

"Ah, well, that wasn't the intention," Andy replied with a sheepish grimace. "But I guess I know not to overexert myself…so what's it like to have a body again?"

"Great." Thalia's eyes lit up like Jason's did when he was excited. "Having conversations with people is nice; you were the only one who stuck around for a chat."

"Well, I was a goddess then," Andy laughed, "I gave up that gig after awhile, immortality isn't really for me."

"Ugh, immortality," Thalia gave an exaggerated shudder and Andy laughed while Percy rolled his eyes behind them.

* * *

The fireplace in Professor McGonagall's office lit up a bright acid green and disgorged three individuals onto her carpet.

The smallest one sneezed violently. "Next time we need a meeting with the headmaster, we're taking Aeton."

The girl next to the first with golden-brown hair hiked up into a high ponytail dusted the ash off her shoulders. "I don't think Aeton could make it the whole way with three passengers."

The first girl gave a careless wave of her hand, helping the woman that could only be their mother into a standing position. "All right, Mum?"

Their mother had a hand pressed firmly to her mouth and Professor McGonagall surmised that it was her first time traveling by Floo.

"I'll be fine once my stomach settles," she gasped and a few moments later she seemed to have done so.

"You must be the Jacksons," Professor McGonagall remarked as she stood behind her desk and all three jumped, but only the girls tried reaching for weapons that could not be seen (or so it seemed).

The mother smiled kindly. "Yes, I'm Sally Jackson, and these are my daughters, Andromeda and Carmella."

The one who had been identified as Andromeda coughed, looking as though she'd had preferred any name but Andromeda but Carmella was beaming.

And if Professor McGonagall said so herself, the daughters looked nothing like each other.

Violet eyes for one thing were incredibly rare in the Wizarding world, and the only family known for having them were the Romanos, but her sister's green eyes were equally as odd, looking more like shattered glass than anything else.

But Professor McGonagall still shook each of their hands. "I am Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration Professor and the Head of Gryffindor House. Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you."

"It's bigger than I expected," Andy muttered to Carmella as they followed behind the professor down a hallway and up a moving flight of stairs that made their mother grasp the stone railing with a white knuckled grip.

"Bigger than Mycenae?" Carmella asked, her lips curling in one corner.

"I want to say no," Andy said, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully, "but maybe it's bigger…I don't remember much about Mycenae's size."

They reached the headmaster's office without much effort and it was blocked by a large stone gargoyle, to which Professor uttered the password:  _"Fizzing Whizbee!"_

Sally watched with wide eyes as the gargoyle bang to move, hopping aside to reveal a spiral staircase. Professor McGonagall led them up, giving a sharp knock on the door and ushering them inside.

It was by far the strangest room Andy had been in to date. It was large and circular, so Andy was sure they were located in one of the spires that she had seen on an outside image of the castle. On a few carved tables were a number of strangely shaped silver instruments, some of which were making soft humming noises and others were emitting little puffs of smoke that seemed to change colors the longer Andy looked at them. The walls had portraits mounted on them with names and dates listed on golden plaques so she took that to mean that they were former headmasters and headmistresses.

And behind a claw-footed desk sat a very old man that could only have been Professor Albus Dumbledore.

He had long silver hair and beard, with the beard so long that it disappeared under the desk, twinkling blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles that seemed younger than the rest of him and twinkling merrily.

"Ah, the Jacksons," he said, his voice aged and his beard twitching as he smiled. "Thank you so much for coming, I promise this will not take long."

He drew out his wand, making a delicate motion and three chair melted out of the floor and the three sat down.

"It's on very rare occasions that Hogwarts takes on transfer students," Professor Dumbledore explained, "generally, our students start at the age of eleven and continue on until they graduate around the age of seventeen. So, we were very surprised when we received the request."

Sally cast a grudging smile towards her daughters. "My girls can be a bit…difficult and they were expelled from Manhattan Academy with no other schools nearby except on the opposite side of the country. Andy and Carmella suggested Hogwarts because they have dual citizenship, for being both English citizens and American ones, and I understand Andy's half-sister attended years ago."

Professor Dumbledore locked his thin fingers together, turning his attention towards Andy who supplied, "Lily Evans."

And then his eyebrows rose higher on his forehead. "You are Lily Evans' sister?"

"Half-sister," Andy corrected, "same father, different mother."

It was clear that information was surprising to him, to say the least.

"Is there anything wrong with them attending this fall?" Sally pressed.

"No, your daughters have been accepted without any difficulties," Professor Dumbledore assured her. "There is only one last matter: the Sorting Ceremony."

"Sorting Ceremony?" Andy asked befuddled.

"Is that where you put a dingy hat on us to tell us which House we're best suited for?" Carmella surmised with narrowed eyes and Andy turned to look at her. "What? Fred told me."

Andy stifled her sniggers into her hand, ignoring how her sister jabbed her in the side with her elbow.

"Yes," Professor Dumbledore said with a small chuckle, lifting the patched hat that had been resting on his desk. "The Sorting Hat sorts you into whichever House you are deemed most suitable for—"

"Does it read your mind?" Andy said with a furrowed brow. "I don't like people picking through my mind."

Sally leaned down to whisper something into her daughter's ear and the tension left Andy just slightly.

"Hand it over," she grumbled, "let's get this over with."

A few seconds later she'd jammed the hat onto her head.

"Hm," came a voice deep in her mind that made her jump violently in her seat, "it's been awhile since I've had such a difficult person to sort…there is darkness and pain, but I see there is good as well, the willingness to sacrifice oneself, the bravery to stand up to one you called friend…" Andy gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into tight fists. "I can think of no better place to sort you than Gryffindor!"

Andy jumped when he'd spoken the last word out loud.

"I knew I'd been too heroic recently," she sighed as she removed it, handing it to Carmella who giggled before placing it on her own head.

It took a bit longer to sort Carmella, and as time wore on, a crease formed between her eyebrows before the hat declared "Hufflepuff!"

"You owe me a denarii," Andy said and Carmella spared a glare her way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was going to have them sorted with the first years and then I was all like, what third year really wanted to do that? So I had them sorted early!
> 
> Andy's always been brave at heart, even if she doesn't want to admit it, and Carmella is steadfast in her loyalty, so Hufflepuff was a no brainer. Just wait until Nico shows up to be sorted ;)
> 
> Next chapter we'll see more of Camp Jupiter, so that'll be exciting…and maybe Sirius' trial, if you're lucky.


	4. A Questioning Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise this story isn't dead! There's a couple fics that I'm focused on; Looking Beyond is almost finished, A Shift in the Force and Tempest have almost hit 100K words. But I've finally gotten some inspiration to work on this fic.
> 
> To the recent people who just got into this fic series, welcome! There's been a surprising amount of interest in this fic recently, so I figured I might as well write something out for you lot, especially since there's several questions that have been posed in the fic that need answering ;)
> 
> Yes, Nico will be showing up at Hogwarts, I need more wizard/witch-demigods in my life, but you won't see him there until come January and this fic is currently only halfway through June. But you will see Nico meet Percy in December, so that'll be exciting.

Dreams had never been something that had come naturally to Andy, and especially since her awakening in the Tiber River, her dreams had grown steadily darker, plaguing her with fears and memories and faces she couldn't quite place.

Nox Bacchry in particular was hardly _off_ her mind, something he would have no doubt been pleased to discover, especially since his sudden disappearance from police custody had made the news, the Wizarding news took it more seriously, seeing as that was what he was. It spread like wildfire when a prestigious Unspeakable in the American Wizarding Ministry suddenly disappeared after a seemingly innocent bit of research into the Pain and Healing Rooms in their Department of Mysteries, only to reappear years later charged with torturing a young witch and murdering a Muggle boy.

Andy couldn't find herself really surprised by the turn of events, after all, Detective Ferus, the traitorous former Praetor that he was, had facilitated in his disappearance once before.

The daughter of Neptune had planned to go back to Camp Jupiter two days ago, but her mother had been so worried about her with Bacchry's disappearance that Andy had held off on leaving simply to soothe her nerves.

Carmella had already headed back by then with an insistence that they all not call her Mella anymore, and Andy couldn't blame her for wanting a different nickname, calling her Mella probably brought back too many memories about Callie and Marlene. (And Andy didn't mind calling her Carm)

Percy had headed back to Camp Half-Blood as well, which meant that currently Andy and Harry were the only ones left in the apartment with Sally, because Harry had decided to go to Camp Jupiter this summer because he missed his friends there and Percy had pouted ("What, you don't want to spend some time with your uncle?" Harry's eyebrows furrowed together. "Ron lives in Britain during the school year, I live here." "Good point…").

Andy twisted a pen around her fingers as she looked over the book, writing a bit of words against the parchment as she leaned back in her chair, the lamp on her desk making her eyes hurt.

She glanced up from her summer work to be handed in on the first day of classes at Hogwarts in September, her eyes fixing briefly on the sky beyond her window. It was clear and dark, making it easy to see a few pinpricks of light that was the stars. It was rather late, or early, depending on whom you asked.

Andy sighed, putting her pen back to the parchment only to lean back against when something solid made contact with the desk. Her eyebrows rose when she looked to the item.

It was a small statue made of bronze in the likeness of a woman wearing a blindfold over her eyes, holding a sword loosely in one hand and scales in the other. Justitia, the goddess of justice and fair judgments.

Andy lifted her eyes from the statue to the young woman who had placed it there.

Asteria gave her a thin smile. "Happy Birthday."

The demigod arched an eyebrow. "My birthday isn't until next month…and I'm not sure why you'd get me anything."

Her own father had only given her a trident, but Asteria had given her life and had done far more for her than any other immortal in the past.

"Besides, justice has never been my forte," she murmured.

"A great warrior can be just," Asteria said, leaning against Andy bed, looking rather out of place against Andy's blue bedspread. Aeton, who was sleeping at the edge of the bed lifted his head and Asteria scratched behind his ears until he dropped his head against his paws, falling back to sleep once more. "You've just never had the opportunity to be such before. It is simpler to be a fighter with morals or good and evil but you know better."

Andy wrinkled her nose, examining the small statue, hefting it in her hand.

"What kind of legacy do you wish to leave behind?" Asteria asked her. "The Wolf is cutthroat and ruthless, but the Diplomat can be reasonable."

_The Diplomat…_

Andy blinked a few times, clearing her thoughts as she set the statue back down on the table. "Reasonable? _Diplomatic?_ That doesn't sound like me."

Her response appeared to amuse Asteria. "Are you certain? Because you could have killed Nox Bacchry when he was caught in the police station, I know there are ways you could have made yourself invisible and finished the job."

Andy's fingers felt cold, like the heat had been leeched from her skin.

"Death takes an instant, suffering is eternal," she said finally.

There was a time when Andy had once wished for death, chained and bleeding and in constant agony, she had prayed from Death to take her, but he had never come, and Andy was _still_ suffering.

"It is, isn't it?"Asteria murmured, her smoky eyes distant as if they were eons away. "I suppose that was why you wanted him to go to Azkaban? So the Dementors could torment him?"

"You can't say he doesn't deserve that," Andy hissed angrily, "you _know_ he does!"

"I think it would affect you a bit more because you know how it affected your brother, how it still is."

Andy flinched, thinking about Sirius' sunken face and wild eyes, and the bony protrusions clear with his atrophied muscles.

"That's not fair," she said, the words thick in her mouth.

"The world isn't fair," Asteria said dryly. "You know that better than anyone else."

And no truer words had been spoken. Poor little Andy who had been born dying, as Saturn had willed it, only to survive through an intervention by Jupiter's Greek aspect and Asteria herself. Poor little Andy who had been ripped from her family and raised by another. Poor little Andy who had endured so much torture for merely being Andromeda's reincarnation. Poor little Andy who'd had to walk through Tartarus with only one ally at her side. Poor little Andy who'd held one friend as she died by the traitorous hand to the other who she had personally put her trident through.

Andy had experienced enough misery and pain to last several lifetimes.

"No, it's not," she mused before closing her eyes and rubbing at her eyes.

But there was a part of her that knew just how exhausting she found it to be fighting all the time, whether it was against other demigods or against monsters.

Fighting for something that would last, in contrast for dying for something that wouldn't…could that be her legacy? She didn't want to only be known as Andromeda the Wolf, the one who'd cut down more monsters than most, she didn't only want to be something to be feared.

"Is it better to be feared or loved?" Andy asked Asteria suddenly and the titan didn't even blink at the odd question, in fact, it made her smile.

"To be loved, of course," she said.

"That's what I thought," Andy muttered examining the statue once more.

The Diplomat…it had a nice ring to it, but Andy wasn't sure if she was deserving of a title like that.

"There is a fine line between justice and retribution, Andromeda, remember that," Asteria mentioned, pulling herself up into a standing position.

"I knew him before, didn't I?" Andy asked her suddenly, lifting her eyes from the statue to look to the titan that had paused in her movements. "Bacchry, I knew him as the queen, didn't I?"

Asteria looked her over with interest. "What makes you say that?" she asked her.

"It was just a dream I had back when I first got pulled out of the Tiber River," Andy admitted. "I saw him but then his face changed, it was older but familiar…I can't quite place it, though."

The titan of dark prophecy's eyes narrowed slightly. "Where were you in your dream?"

"Mycenae," Andy said without preamble, which made Asteria smile.

"Where in Mycenae?" she pressed.

"My tomb," Andy said in a rather matter of fact manner, and oddly enough that was thing that enraptured her interest the most.

"Your tomb?" she repeated. "Are you certain?"

"I know the way to my own tomb," Andy said with a bit of annoyance, the very same words she had thought to herself within the dream only to draw herself up short. "I've never been in my tomb."

"I suspect not," Asteria mused. "Perses had it completed after your death, armed it to the teeth with traps that only Queen Andromeda could get past."

Andy thought it was odd that her past life's son had made it so no one but herself could make it through; it was almost like he expected only her to actually get into the tomb, and that made her wonder what all was hidden within.

"Yet I grow concerned over what returning to Mycenae would do to you," Asteria continued and Andy furrowed her brow. "The place where one died in a previous life can have effects into the next, you have experienced it before."

The daughter of Neptune grimaced at the thought, a hand dropping to her waist, to the spot where she had once stabbed herself in anguish and sorrow, bleeding out before Perseus' funeral pyre. The phantom-wound still stung some days, and she could remember a few times when the pain had been so great that it had brought her to her knees (though it was also possible that Cupid had influenced that, Andy could never be quite sure).

"Bacchry has an interest in it," Andy said, and his name was like ash on her tongue, "that makes it of interest to me."

"So you say."

"It's not like I can't handle a bit of pain," Andy said, more to herself than to Asteria, turning away from her to fix her eyes on the glittering stars once more. There was something rather terrifying about meeting Nox Bacchry without any shackles to bind him, and Andy was sure she had a right to think that.

Those eyes, darker than plum, the color of spilled wine, still haunted her darkest nightmares.

"No, but there is another aspect of this matter you haven't yet considered," Asteria said with a solemn tone.

Andy's eyebrows drew together in confusion, but before she could ask the titan, she'd vanished, almost as though she'd never been there in the first place.

She was too soft on her, Asteria always was; Andy was certain Delos, even though she'd never met her, would have been harsher than her Greek aspect.

"Do you know what she was talking about?" she asked her familiar and Aeton lifted his head and gave a low whine.

"Me neither," Andy murmured, turning off the lamp and climbing back into bed, staring at the wall and she curled up into a ball under the covers.

The thought would only come to her later, that she needed to know if he'd given anything away during his torture of her body and mind and the mere thought made Andy colder than ice and her nightmares so dark that she awoke screaming.

She clawed at her mother as she attempted to soothe her, still feeling the shackles rubbing at her raw wrists, the cold seeping through her skin to her very soul, the wounds on her back open and bleeding.

"It's all right," Sally promised, stroking her hands through her daughter's hair and peppering kisses to her slick brow. "You're safe, Andy, you're _safe."_

Andy's frantic heart beat calmed slowly as she leaned back against the pillows, breathing hard as her eyes focused on her mother, focusing on her as though Sally Jackson was her lifeline. She saw nothing but the shape of her eyes, the shade of blue they were, how her brown hair fell over her shoulders in loose waves, the moonlight painting her grey streaks silver.

"It's all right," her mother repeated, her presence itself disappearing Andy's fears more than anything. "It was just a nightmare."

The daughter of Neptune closed her eyes, wishing it was just that.

* * *

Nico di Angelo had always known he was a strange boy, the pair of them, Nico and Bianca, were a bit odd, considering those they met.

It was typical of them to be immediately considered foreigners from the moment they opened their mouths. Nico couldn't really tell the difference, but there was something in the way they formed their words that was very different from those they met.

Nico didn't really know where they'd been born, neither did Bianca, she always furrowed her brow when he asked, but she could never come up with an answer. He could remember a few things about his mother if he tried hard enough, he could see a fuzzy image of a woman with Bianca's smile and his eyes, but the image faded too fast for him to see it clearly.

There was one thing Nico had been certain of, and it was his strange fascination with green eyes. The very idea had initially flustered him, because the first time he'd seen eyes that color was on a young boy with blonde ringlets and a smile that dimpled.

Boys were not supposed to like boys, so Nico kept it to himself, but the green he looked for in others eyes was never the right color, never the right shade. It was maddening the obsession he had with the color, but it was like he couldn't help himself.

And then he'd started having those dreams, dreams of chaos and brightness and sounds that rang in his ears even when he awoke. Dreams of a girl with white hair streaked with blue, her face bloodied as she laughed, her hands clutching a trident and a blade that Nico wanted to reach out and claim as his own, chainmail glittering in the sunlight under a thick leather tunic. She was terrifying and startling, and her form was that of a warrior, but Nico didn't notice that first. He noticed the green eyes, the color of the sea, like shattered glass.

The green eyes he'd been seeking for so long.

He just never thought he'd find them in the face of a girl as tempestuous as the sea.

But then he woke up and the image of her faded, and with her, her laughter and glittering eyes vanished and Nico had to wonder if she'd just been a dream.

* * *

Andy was more than ready to leave Manhattan two days later when she'd downed the last of the potions that Andrew had left her with. If she wasn't back to full strength, then she would be very soon, hence why she wished to head off to Camp Jupiter with Harry in tow.

"Are you sure you have everything? A change of clothes? Toiletries? Weapons?" Sally ticked off on her fingers the list of things the pair could possibly need as Andy sighed in front of her and Aeton wagged his tail at her side, the tail colliding with Harry, forcing him to step forward slightly to pull himself out of its warpath.

The question of weapons was rather useless on Andy, particularly since she had her leather bracelet wrapped around her wrist with the few silver charms that became full-sized whenever she wished, with a dagger hidden in her boot and another holstered to her thigh. Harry's bow and quiver of arrows were secured over his shoulders so as not to jostle at Aeton's shadow-travel speeds.

"Yes, Mum," Andy said, her words just short of complaining. "We've got everything we need."

"You're sure?" Sally asked her, running a few fingers through her light hair until Andy swatted her away, and then she ruffled Harry's hair, and he let her.

" _Yes,_ I'm sure," Andy sighed, "besides, if we forget something, it only takes a few seconds to come back and grab whatever it is…its only California, Mum." She had to add the last bit when it was made clear that her mother was lingering on purpose.

Sally gave a small nod. "You'll be back for your birthday, though? And before you head off to school?"

"I promise," Andy agreed, "And Mella –I mean Carm– will come back too."

Sally gathered her daughter into a warm hug before doing the same to Harry. "You'll be careful, Harry? Don't push yourself too hard."

A pout formed on Andy's nephew's lips. "I don't push myself hard," he muttered in a bit of annoyance. "Aunty doesn't let me do _anything_ fun."

Andy smirked. "At least not until he can hold well enough on his own."

" _Aunty!"_ Harry complained, but Sally's laughter was relieved as he gave her a swift hug before pulling himself up onto Aeton, who had grown in size in order to accommodate the two of them.

"Don't worry," Andy said with a laugh of her own, "there's enough regulation in Camp Jupiter to keep him out of trouble; there's only so much he and Ron can get up to without getting sewed into a sack with weasels and tossed in the Tiber."

Harry and Ron had met a few years back, when Andy was still a goddess and took him with her sometimes to Camp Jupiter. The pair had hit off, but then Harry had spent more time first at Hecate House and then at Camp Half-Blood, but they had kept in contact as best as they could. Ron had a short Imperial Gold sword and a head for tactics, but using the sword correctly had always been a problem for him; Fred and George had taken to just letting him loose on the other cohorts during War Games and Andy had never seen so many demigods scatter at the sight of a boy haphazardly waving his sword and yelling incoherently.

Harry paled at the mention of the weasels. "I was joking," Andy said dryly, before her eyes glittered, "or was I?"

He scowled at her and Andy smirked, pulling her bags over her shoulders and mounting Aeton after Harry, tightening her legs on either side of the hellhound-hybrid. "Let's go, Aeton!"

And he gave a loud bark, leaping into the shadows and taking them with him.

* * *

"This isn't Camp Jupiter," was the first thing out of Harry's mouth when Aeton finally came to a stop, skidding in the Fields of Asphodel.

"No, it's not," Andy said dryly, "but I need to speak with your granddad for a few minutes."

Harry's face positively lit up at the mention of Thanatos (or Letus as he was technically Harry's Roman ancestor) which Andy still found incredibly ironic since the god had a notoriously negative reputation, despite being known as the god of peaceful death.

"About what?" he asked hopping down after her, leaving Aeton to pant against the ground under the shade of a swaying willow tree, eagerly lapping up the water in the small pool there.

"I left him with something that I think I might need," Andy said absently, making her way through the spirits that went right through her as she searched for the god in question. She had no doubt he would show up sooner or later, sensing the living among the dead was a skill he possessed and living demigods weren't exactly allowed to enter the Underworld whenever they pleased (Andy just wasn't very good at following those rules).

" _Andromeda,"_ an ancient voice warned, "you know how he feels about mortals entering his domain."

Thanatos appeared so suddenly in front of Andy that actually had to leap back in surprise, but Harry surged forward to wrap his arms around the god. They were an interesting contrast, Harry being fair with green eyes and Thanatos being dark with golden eyes. "Granddad!"

Andy had never understood how fast Harry had taken to his ancestral father –probably even faster than he'd taken to any of the Jacksons– but there'd always been something off about him, something that tied him to Death, maybe that was why. And Harry was lucky, though Thanatos was cryptic and forbidden from being in contact with his descendant, he had shown he wasn't afraid to break that rule; loving Harry was the easy part.

Thanatos ruffled Harry's hair much like Sally had, but there was a different kind of softness in his expression before he lifted his head to fix his eyes on Andy.

"I left you with my dagger," Andy said with preamble, "I think I'd like it back now."

"You think?" he repeated her words, an eyebrow arched as his descendant stepped back, releasing his tight grip on the god. "You gave me the dagger believing it was cursed and wanting nothing to do with it."

Andy's teeth gritted together, remembering the knife digging into her side where she'd taken her own life when she was Andromeda Queen of Mycenae, remembering how it had shocked her every time she had tried to touch it. Instead, she'd locked it in a box and entrusted it to one of the most trustworthy gods she knew, and that was back when she'd still been immortal.

"Times change," Andy said finally, "I might need it."

Golden eyes narrowed. "Indeed." He held out a hand and the air around it warped until he was holding a small box, just large enough to hold a dagger.

Andy took the box from him, undoing the clasp and revealing the gift of Perseus to Andromeda so many ages ago. It was a rather simple design, as Andy recalled, the blade itself a shimmering bronze with a curved sort of hilt that was undecorated yet ornate. It hardly looked to suit a queen, but from what Andy could recall, Andromeda had never been much for displaying her wealth.

She extended her hand to lift it, freezing before her fingers could touch it. She could feel Thanatos' eyes on her, waiting to see what she would do next, but she swallowed and grasped it by its hilt, wincing as she waited for the shock to come, but it didn't.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," she muttered more to herself than anything.

"It is the dagger of a mortal queen," Thanatos mentioned dryly, "it was made to be untouchable to immortals."

"Oh, that's _very_ helpful," Andy complained hotly, shoving the dagger into the arm holster that held her wand. "Where were you a year ago?"

But that only seemed to amuse him as she herded Harry back towards Aeton hastily.

"There might come a day when your name appears on my list, Andromeda Jackson-Black," he mentioned ominously.

"I guess we'll just have to find out, then," Andy responded with a hint of a challenge before they faded into shadow once more and all she caught in the depths of his golden eyes was a hint of a warning, and that only served to confuse her further.

Even without speaking he still maintained his talent of being cryptic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been awhile, yeah? I'm sure some of the ideas I had for this fic might have been great, but I've forgotten some of them, on the upside, I've got some new ideas!
> 
> I'm not sure if there'll be any more updates for awhile, but I will be on Spring Break next week, so there is a small chance I might update again.
> 
> Bacchry is going to be very important in a bit, so pay attention!


	5. A Senator's Request

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, it's been awhile since I updated this fic, and I got a bit inspired, which had mostly to do with The Hidden Oracle coming in the mail, so here's another chapter for you lot.

New Rome was rather busy when Harry and Andy finally made it through the boundary line, but Andy wasn't surprised, there always seemed to be something to do in New Rome.

Aeton gave a low growl as he padded beside Andy, growing to a larger size briefly and baring his teeth at what appeared to be a _probatio_ who had clearly never seen an offspring of a wolf and a hell-hound and Andy marveled at how the boy –who was at least two years her senior, by the look of it– fainted right on the spot.

"Ron's probably out in the arena with his brothers if you want to go meet him there," Andy mentioned and Harry looked to her, making her smile. "Go ahead, I don't mind."

She took his bag from him and he beamed impossibly wide, grabbing up his bow and quiver and darting away before Andy could even consider drawing him back.

Aeton gave a small growl beside her as she shouldered her nephew's bag. "Don't worry about it," she said to the hybrid, "he's just excited to see his friend, who can blame him for that?"

But she grimaced, her thoughts drifting to her own friends, remembering a time when she was much the same, but Andy didn't have very many friends left and it seemed she was destined for a life of misery.

She shook her thoughts free in favor of making the trek towards Fourth Cohort, where it had been rebuilt after being moved a bit farther from Wolf House.

The bunk beds were spaced uniformly when Andy stepped inside, but that was to be expected, after all, if there was one thing that New Rome did best, it was being like the military. The senator bunks were closer to the door, but they were no less impressive than the rest; only the Praetors got more special treatment, with their own houses on the Via Principalis, and that was for obtaining a leadership position, which was rightfully earned.

Andy stopped before the beds. Marlene had taken the bottom bunk after Bill Weasley had stepped down, and Andy had had the top one for years, but now they were short a senator and the only one with the most experience after Andy was probably Carmella and she really doubted her adoptive sister would be willing to take that mantel.

Marlene's bed had nothing on it to indicate the personality of the one who had once slept in it, as though Marlene Thomas was several footprints on the sand, slowly being swept away by the tide.

She gritted her teeth together before tossing Harry's bag onto the bed he slept in to the far corner, doing the same with her own.

"Um," said a startled voice behind her, "that's the senators' bunks, you can't put your stuff there."

Andy turned to survey the speaker. She was young, but still older than Andy –though it didn't take much to be older than Andy, the only thing she had on people these days was experience over age– her hair set in a frizzy afro and suiting the dark shade of her skin.

"I am the senator," Andy said blandly, "Senator Andy Jackson-Black."

The girl's lips parted in surprise, shifting on her feet and Andy caught a glimpse of the _probatio_ tablet swaying from its position around her neck. She must be one of the newest recruits.

"Where is Centurion Carmella Jackson?" she asked instead, speaking in what Percy liked to call her 'official voice'.

"Um, I think she's working on her archery," the girl admitted, clearly still trying to wrap her head around the idea of Andy. "Wait…you're Andy Jackson-Black? _The_ Andy Jackson-Black? _The Wolf?_ The one that stopped that wave?"

Andy arched an eyebrow. "I wasn't alone."

"And we all know that you were most of the strength behind that defense," came a second voice and Andy smiled as Jason leaned against the doorway into the Fourth Cohort's barracks.

"Golden Boy," she smirked, "you know I would never admit to that."

Jason rolled his eyes at the use of the name, crossing his arms. "That's funny because none of the other sea god descendents or children were in a coma for two weeks in order to recover."

Andy sulked. That just wasn't fair.

"Come on," Jason grinned, jerking his head back, "I'll even buy you a cup of hot cider."

And Andy laughed as she strode past the still-struck girl to his side. "If you're paying, then _hell yeah_ , Grace, let's get some cider."

"See you, Leila," Jason called over his shoulder as they made their way out onto the main road. "I don't know how you do it," he added a few seconds later, "but somehow you manage to terrify the _probatio_ just by looking at them."

Andy gave a shrug. "I'm a _terrifying_ person."

Jason snorted, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye and Andy pretended not to notice how he took in the exhaustive way she held herself, like she hadn't gotten a good night of sleep in awhile, but at the least she didn't look nearly as thin as she had been when he'd dropped her off at her mother's apartment.

"You look better," he said instead.

"Thanks," Andy said thinly, "but I'm not planning on staying very long."

Jason's brow furrowed in confusion. "What're you talking about?" he asked. He knew her brother went somewhere else for training, which was odd enough –why not just come to Camp Jupiter? Then brother and sister could be in the same place– but could she be heading there?

"There's something I need your help on," she said, turning to fix her eyes on him, serious, green, and fractured, "you don't have to say yes if you don't want to."

He hadn't seen her that serious since they'd been in Tartarus together.

"What is it?" he asked, but Andy's lips drew into a line.

"Not here," she said, taking his wrist and tugging him down the road.

"You don't even know where you're going!" Jason complained a moment later when they came to a violent stop and Andy realized that that was very true.

"This would have been so much simpler if New Rome had been built the exact same way it was when it was closer to Wolf House," she muttered, the heel of her boot digging into the cobblestone as her cousin gave her an exasperated look.

"What are even looking for, Andy?"

Andy scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Well, I figured my father's temple –if you can even call it that– might be a good place to talk."

Then, for some unknown reason, a wide grin split Jason's face. "Oh, you're going to _love_ this," he said, grabbing her hand and taking off in the opposite direction, stringing Andy along like a rag doll and she only properly regained her footing when they came to a stop in front of a modest temple.

Andy stared then she closed her eyes for a few seconds and opened them, startled to find it still there. Then she jabbed a finger at the temple, glowering at Jason.

"What the _fuck_ is that?" she demanded.

It was nowhere near as impressive as any of the other temples, but that had always been expected, after all, Romans feared Neptune and that hadn't changed, even Andy inspired fear for simply being his daughter, before she'd even earned the name Wolf. It was made of marble with carved pillars and a domed roof, nothing like the blue painted shack she remembered from before. Where a trident had once been nailed to the door was one now carved.

"It's Neptune's temple," Jason said, grinning, clearly enjoying her reaction, the bastard.

"No, it's _not!"_ Andy insisted. "This is some kind of dream, right? Because there's _no way_ that Romans would give _Neptune_ a temple like _this!"_ Her arms were like windmills as she waved them wildly towards the offending structure.

"Look, you kind of disappeared after the whole flood thing had been sorted out," Jason explained, "a few of the other sea legacies tried to find you when you went under, but I guess that was your dad being nice for once—"

Andy snorted.

"—and a lot of camp felt a bit guilty how you were practically dead for saving their butts and because they treated you a bit badly at some point, so they decided to give Neptune a proper temple."

Her brow furrowed. "The camp decided to give my father a legitimate temple in _my honor?"_

"Something like that," Jason conceded.

"Are they going to tear it down now that everyone knows I'm alive?"

"It's probably too much effort, to be honest," Jason hid his snort. "I mean, they still fear Neptune, I don't think that's going to change, but…you were literally willing to die for the rest of camp, that's opened a lot of eyes."

Andy's eyes shifted downwards, not quite knowing what to say to that. The last time so many had died on her watch had been when Hecate House had gone up in flames and she simply hadn't wanted the same to happen to Camp Jupiter when she could easily prevent it.

She didn't speak, instead choosing to push open the door and enter the simple and rather small temple. The inside was much less impressive than the outside, only being just a bit bigger than the shack she remembered with the altar being pathetically small.

Andy dropped an apple into the bowl on the altar, but she offered no prayer.

"So, what's got you so shook up?" Jason asked as they both sat on the hard floor. "Another dream?"

Andy chewed on her lip and nodded. "Back when I was still in that coma in the Tiber River I had a weird dream, which I'm used to, you know, especially since a lot of my dreams happen in Mycenae, and this one was there too…but I saw Bacchry."

Jason swallowed. It would be hard to find a demigod or a legacy who hadn't been in the camp at the time of her abduction that didn't speak that name in horrified disgust.

"But it was…odd," Andy continued, frowning at the memory, "like he was him and _not him_ , but the not him part I recognized."

Andy was saying words but Jason only understood half of them. "Uh…what?"

He received an eye roll. "It's not that hard, Jason, get it together."

Jason spluttered incoherently; it wasn't as though she was actually speaking plain English, because she _definitely_ wasn't.

"I knew him when I was the Queen, Jason," she said dryly, "and I think he's going back to Mycenae, looking for something there."

"I thought he was in jail," Jason said flummoxed.

"He escaped," Andy grumbled and suddenly the reason she'd looked so out of sorts finally made sense. Jason had never known any mortal that could inspire as much fear in Andy as the man that had made her into a ruin that still had scars that might never heal. "He escaped and I know he's going to try to get into the fortress but I don't know why."

"Mycenae doesn't exist anymore, though, does it?"

She cupped her chin thoughtfully, a crease appearing between her eyebrows. "I'm not really sure, and I'm not really sure how he found out about it or…I'm not sure about a lot of things."

Her shoulders sagged and blue eyes fastened on her.

"But you still want to go on a quest to be sure?" he asked and she looked up, surprise coloring her face.

"Would you go with me?" she asked instead of answering.

His eyebrows rose on his forehead. "I would've thought you'd want to do it with Carmella."

"I do," Andy said, her lips pulling into a grimace, "but I don't think she'd agree to going…not after what's happened."

She wouldn't want to go on another quest so soon after Marlene and Callie's deaths, particularly since she'd been on one when they'd been killed.

Andy's teeth gritted together. "So, what d'you say? Want to go to Greece with me, Jason?"

"Is that even a question?" he asked, a slight grin on his lips. "Of course I'll come…but crossing the _Mare Nostrom_ is going to strip us of our ranks."

The Mediterranean Sea wasn't something demigods were permitted to cross, mostly because of the sheer number of monsters in the ancient lands.

"We won't need to cross it," Andy smirked. "One hellhound-hybrid can make that distance through only shadow."

* * *

"You look busy."

Andy was leaning against her trident as her sister strung an arrow into her bow, taking aim and firing on the target set at a distance that was clear across the arena. Andy knew she'd never be able to make that target, but Carmella was a different matter.

The arrow lodged in the center ring and Carmella relaxed her arm, turning to look at Andy.

"I hear you're heading out on a quest," she said in lieu of answering, but Andy hadn't expected her to take it seriously to begin with.

"News travels fast," Andy said wryly.

"I think it more had to do with you needing a prophecy and you don't have one," Carmella pointed out, taking another arrow out.

"Jason and I are going to Mycenae," Andy said and Carmella faltered, her arrow almost completely missing the target as she gaped at Andy.

"You're serious?" Violet eyes were wide. "That's a bit…you know. Praetor won't be pleased."

"I'm not telling him," Andy said blandly, shrugging her shoulders for good measure.

"Traveling to the ancient lands in general is _taboo_ , Andy," Carmella pressed, "not to mention they're full of monsters, you and Jason would be stripped of your titles as senator if anyone finds out. Whatever it is has to be _really_ important for you to risk your necks for it, especially after—" Carmella's throat closed and Andy looked away.

"He wants to name you Praetor," Carmella said after a long moment of silence, regaining her words at long last, "Matthew, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the Senate is going to agree."

"I –what?" Andy floundered, her eyes wide and startled. She actually took a step back. "No, _no,_ there's other people with more experience—"

"Than _you?_ Andy, come _on_ , there's not that many and you know it," Carmella scoffed, rolling her eyes. "And you saved New Rome—"

"Helped save New Rome," Andy corrected, which Carmella opted to ignore.

"You're a good leader and they'd have to be blind not to see that."

Andy crossed her arms and huffed and Carmella could see just a hint of the twelve hashes that were present against her arm as a number of years of service. Sooner or later she was going to run out of room on her arm.

She dug her wand out of the holster at the center of her back that was looped into her jeans, resting beside a hunting knife. "Give me your arm?"

Her sister gave her an odd expression, but she complied to the request, extending the arm.

Carmella pointed her wand tip towards Andy's inner arm. _"Reformabit,"_ she murmured and Andy hissed as the marks on her arm glowed with heat, only to fade a moment later into a single X followed by two single hashes.

"Really?" Andy complained, rubbing at her arm, which only made the marks redder.

"Hey, you were going to run out of arm soon, trust me, I did you a favor." And Carmella's lips twitched faintly, which was more than enough.

Andy hugged Carmella tightly. "Look after Harry while I'm gone, won't you? I think he's having trouble with his aim."

Carmella laughed, but Andy could tell that it was mostly forced. "Just as long as you do come back," she whispered against her ear. "Promise me."

"On my life," Andy said, but they both knew better than to consider that to be a promise kept.

* * *

"Getting information from you is like pulling teeth out with pliers."

"I'd consider that a compliment." Andy's smile was hidden behind her cup of cider, which had to be her second one that day, but she couldn't really complain when she wasn't the one paying for it.

"Senator Jackson-Black," Matthew Jones, currently the only Praetor of the Twelfth Legion barely resisted smacking his palm against his forehead and Andy had to admire his resolve, "it's rather simple to tell me where your quest will be taking you."

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?" Andy was quirking an eyebrow and smiling slyly, but this was Matthew, grandson of Aesculapius, he was not so easily outwitted.

"No, I wouldn't," he said. "I think you know exactly where you're going, which is why you're going on a quest without a prophecy…Octavian is blowing a gasket, you know."

"Oh _wow_ , imagine how _little_ I care about that."

Matthew laughed at her words and the tone they were said in. "You know," he mentioned slyly, "Caesar once broke the laws of the legion by crossing the Rubicon, it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened."

"I didn't say anything about the ancient lands," Andy said, uncrossing her legs under the table and leaning back to shift her eyes towards the others clustered at other tables at the outdoor café, but none were close enough to hear their conversation, though several did look a bit interested.

"Don't insult my intelligence, Andromeda." She didn't even blink at the full use of her name. "Though, I suppose if you don't tell me where you're going, I can just assume you're remaining in the states…"

Andy smiled, leaning forward across the table, her eyes glittering. "You're a _gem,_ Matthew, don't let anyone tell you different."

Matthew rolled his eyes. "And you can't keep avoiding the question."

He wanted a serious answer but Andy couldn't think about that right now, so many other feverish thoughts were running through her mind. It was impossible for her to even consider at the current time.

"Ask me when I get back," she said, pushing her chair back to pull herself upright. "Jason and I'll be gone within the hour."

Aeton, who had followed Andy, laying down and panting at her feet, leapt up, gleaming eyes eager, and for at least the seventieth time since Matthew had first seen the familiar, he wondered why Andy hadn't picked a more manageable creature to bond to her.

"And Andy?" he called, making her pause and look down on him. "Quests are done in trios. I suggest you find someone trustworthy to fill Carmella's void."

"Good _bye_ , Matthew," Andy laughed. "I'll see you when I get back."

And then she downed the last of her hot cider –why in this heat she'd want it, he'd never know–, crumpling the disposable cup before throwing it away and rushing off with Aeton at her heels.

* * *

Reyna was in the midst of sparring with a particularly shaky son of Fortuna when a voice interrupted her, though, there wasn't much to the fight, so it was a welcome distraction.

"Hey, Reyna, over here!" Jason was waving at her and grinning before turning to his companion. "This is the girl I was telling you about."

Reyna wasn't surprised to see that his companion was Andy Jackson-Black, she'd been the talk of New Rome even before she'd reappeared on the banks of the Tiber River, and Jason had spent a great deal of time with her once he'd pulled her from the water bank.

Her eyes were as unnerving as Reyna remembered, but she was sure that Andy made a habit of unnerving people with that head of white and blue hair. Reyna doubted anyone could have looked more like Neptune's daughter than the girl herself.

"You look better," Reyna admitted, remembering well the last time their paths had crossed.

Andy shrugged. "What can I say? My mother had some amazing soup handy."

She stood beside Jason easily, unperturbed by their mutual closeness, but Reyna didn't think she'd seen him stand so close to anyone before (not that she was looking, but she _did_ notice things).

"You've met before, right?" Jason asked and Andy gave a half-smile.

"Barely," she said.

"I'm Reyna," Reyna supplied helpfully, "daughter of Bellona."

"Andy," the twelve-year-old demigod revealed, taking her hand, "daughter of Neptune…a _probatio_ , I assume, but I'm not too picky."

"I'm –what?" Reyna asked flummoxed, the words hardly a question.

"Jason and I are going on a quest," Andy said smirking, her hands resting on her hips –Reyna didn't see why she bothered with the movement, she already looked more impressive than Jason, and he was Jupiter's son and had at least two inches on her–, "and we need a third member. He suggested _you."_

Reyna's dark eyes darted to Jason, who rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to avoid eye contact. Confusion made way to excitement. "You want me to go on a quest with you? A _real_ quest?"

"Real, now _that's_ the question," Jason muttered and Andy elbowed him in the side.

"It's very serious," Andy said, green eyes darkening, "breaking some of New Rome's most ancient laws."

The only ancient laws Reyna could think of at that point were the ones forbidding demigods from traveling to the ancient lands.

Then Reyna's eyes became the size of saucers.

She'd never even heard of anyone trying to flaunt that, but the two that were likely to get away with it would have to be Andy and Jason, their fathers were of the Big Three.

"Interested?" Andy prodded, shifting so that the sunlight caught off the silver charms on the strap of leather around her wrist.

Reyna considered her options. On one hand, rules were very important to Romans and they were in place for a reason. The ancient lands had to be incredibly dangerous, but here were two children of the eldest gods all but saying that's where they were going to quest, and it was completely insane. But on the other hand, no demigod had been to the ancient lands in centuries and experience in New Rome and on quests was something that Reyna sorely needed.

"Definitely," she said.

Jason grinned and Andy's eyes gleamed.

"I hope you're handy with that spear, Reyna," she said, "because you're going to need it."

The hellhound-hybrid at her side, which Reyna was doing her best to ignore because, frankly, it was terrifying, gave a sharp bark and Andy sighed, ducking her head in annoyance, "Yes, I know, Aeton, thank you very much."

"Pack light," Jason advised, "meet you at the Caldecott Tunnel in an hour?"

"I'll be there," Reyna promised, her hands tightening over her Imperial Gold spear. She'd take any chance at proving herself and earning the title of Centurion, and whatever the cause the pair had for being so secretive, she hoped it was a good one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked the idea of Reyna, Jason, and Andy going on a quest, but then this idea dawned on me. The quest'll be good, I promise, and I need these dorks bonding in my life.
> 
> Percy should be in the next chapter, I make no promises, but I do like the idea of him slowly questioning the idea of Andy being Greek.


	6. Word to the Romans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The trio of Jason-Andy-Reyna is literally the best idea I've had since book three started, and you'll definitely see a lot of bonding, so get ready for it.
> 
> Haha, guess who's finding out about Camp Jupiter? It might seem a little early, but Percy does live with two Roman demigods and one Roman legacy, so he was bound to find out eventually.

Percy was standing on top of the water just beyond the dock while Grover sat swinging his hooves over the edge, watching his best friend with interest.

Standing on top of the water level was a fairly simple trick, especially if you were only making it solid for yourself. Percy and Andy had gotten rather good at it, though Andy tended to create very thin sheets of ice under the soles of her feet.

Creating ice was a skill within the repertoire of a child of Poseidon, but Percy was having a much more difficult time at it than Andy had ever seemed to.

"Maybe it's more to do with your personality," Grover suggested as he struggled to create patches of ice, and Percy cast him a befuddled look. "Well, you're a more go with the flow kind of person and Andy's all sharp and icy."

"She is _not!"_ Percy retorted, defensive for his sister's sake, but he couldn't deny that Andy had an icy quality to her, but given her past he'd guessed it was a defense mechanism of sorts or an effect of being the minor goddess of ice for a few years.

Grover gave him a dry stare. "Dude, monsters call her the _Wolf_ , I'm pretty sure the last one they talked about like that was the first Perseus."

" _Great,"_ Percy muttered, frost appearing around the edges of his shoes.

"What're you guys doing?"

Percy abruptly lost his concentration at the sound of Annabeth's voice and he slid right through the water's surface with an audible yelp. When his head broke through the surface again, the first thing he heard was laughter.

"Thanks for that," he complained, pulling himself up onto the dock. "I was really getting somewhere!"

Thalia, who had come with Annabeth, snorted. "You mean like frosting your shoes?"

Percy ignored his friends as they laughed at his expense, mildly distracted by a slight buzzing from his pocket.

He pulled out the phone that Andy had left with him that read Unknown and he frowned.

"What're you doing with Andy's phone?" Annabeth said in surprise.

"Um, well, she said the charm she got from Lou-Ellen was on the fritz, so she didn't really want to leave it outside of the barrier," Percy said, but that was odd in itself.

" _You've been fine with the charm for about a year," Percy pointed out as Andy stood with one arm hooked around herself to drum her fingers nervously against her shoulder. "And don't you have people you want to talk to?"_

_Andy's face had gone stony and she'd shaken her head. "My scent's getting stronger, I think, probably the same with you, I'd feel better if you just kept it in the cabin."_

_Percy frowned. "Aren't there barriers where you're going?"_

" _Yes," Andy agreed, "but the Golden Fleece is older and stronger, and…" She caught herself, like she'd been about to say something important. "It's just safer there, I think."_

"Hello?" Percy said into the phone, accidentally turning it on speaker.

" _Percy?"_ Andy's voice was garbled and static-y, but her words were easy to make out _. "Hi, I'd call Mum, but I don't want her to worry about me being on a quest—"_

Thalia's eyebrows arched and Grover and Annabeth shared surprised looks as Percy's eyebrows furrowed.

"You're going on a quest?" he asked and the others clearly thought it was better not to speak, which he was grateful for. _"Again?_ I thought after what happened—"

" _Carmella's not going,"_ Andy said, cutting him across, _"and technically the quest isn't sanctioned, so I'm already breaking at least two of the ancient laws."_

"I, uh, didn't realize there _were_ ancient laws," Percy said, feeling a bit flustered, "you know, outside of the Big Three not supposed to have kids and all…"

" _You'd be surprised,"_ Andy's voice uttered grimly, _"traveling across Mare Nostrom is forbidden enough but going to the ancient lands would technically strip me of my title as Senator, but Matthew, the gem that he is, is choosing to look the other way, which I'm pretty sure is just because he wants me as the Praetor opposite him, which is –you know—"_

Percy actually had no idea, but he thought it might be better not to mention that.

" _Anyways, we're heading out to Mycenae, so if Mum happens to call, tell her Lupa's kicking my ass in remedial training."_

"You want me to lie to Mom?" Percy spluttered faintly. "And she's not going to believe that you're in remedial training, Andy, you don't _need_ remedial training."

Thalia stifled her amusement.

" _You never know,"_ Andy said mildly and Percy pinched the bridge of his nose wondering why on earth his sister had to be the most difficult. _"Besides, I doubt she'd approve."_

"Of course _not,"_ Percy drawled. "Imagine if she approved of all the quests we'd gone on."

" _No,"_ Andy said, her voice darkening even over the phone, _"I mean she wouldn't approve because of why I'm doing the quest."_

Confusion spread across Percy's face. "What're you talking about, Andy?"

" _Nox Bacchry isn't in prison anymore,"_ she replied shortly, and there was a weight to her words.

Percy shut off the speaker, pressing the phone to his ear and turning away from his friends, knowing full well that they were listening in. "I heard," he said, his tone serious, "how are you?"

" _Angry, numb, personally I want to go to the police station and mount Michael Ferin's head on a stick,"_ Andy spat the name venomously, _"I know he's behind everything, and when I get back I'm going to tell Praetor everything and at the very least he'll be exiled."_

Percy remembered well the police detective that had come to the apartment with a cold smile and even colder eyes. He also remembered how Andy had looked at him, with pure hate.

" _Bacchry wants something in Mycenae, I don't know what yet,"_ Andy said, and Percy could imagine his sister glancing around skittishly. _"We've got to make a few stops before we actually get to Greece, hopefully we can beat him there, though."_

"We?" Percy asked.

" _I've got Jason with me, and a new girl,"_ Andy informed him. _"I'll be fine, Percy, really."_

Yet, for some reason, that wasn't really comforting.

"Well, I guess if I had to pick someone to go on a quest I'd probably pick the guy that had my back in Tartarus," Percy admitted and he could hear her laugh.

" _I love you, Percy,"_ she said, _"and I gotta go, I've been on the phone too long and I think I've attracted the attention of a Lemure."_

"A monkey?" Percy said in complete confusion.

She laughed again. _"Definitely not. Later, Percy."_

And then her voice left him as she hung up and Percy turned around to see the three of them watching him with interest. "What?" he demanded, clearly defensive.

"Your sister was in _Tartarus?"_ Thalia asked, severely startled, and Percy could have echoed the sentiment if he hadn't already gotten used to the idea back when she'd first returned.

"Yeah, that was a fun few days," he muttered, scrubbing at his eyes. "There's nothing quite like seeing your little sister drenched in blood in an elevator."

It was horrifying and haunting and it still sent a shiver down Percy's spine.

"How did she make it out?" Thalia asked, crossing her arms, looking particularly impressed.

Percy wrinkled his nose. "I don't know," he admitted, "she wasn't very talkative about it."

Annabeth chuckled slightly. "Andy's never been the talkative type, though…but Nox Bacchry, isn't he the one that—?" She didn't have to even finish the question for a low noise to rumble deep in Percy's throat.

"I'm lost," Thalia remarked, eyes jumping from one friend to the next.

Grover looked to Percy with a sickly green tint to his cheeks. In Camp Half-blood, not too many people knew about what had happened to Andy, a far cry from Camp Jupiter, where it was a well-known fact. Only close friends knew and Grover was quite wishing he'd never found out.

"When my sister was seven she was tortured by one of Mr. D's sons," Percy said shortly, his lips set in a thin line and with a grim fury and Thalia thought inexplicably of her brother Jason and she could completely understand his rage that was so clearly bubbling under his skin, because if someone had done that to her brother, she would have gone off. "He was arrested about a month ago…she thought he was dead, she thought she'd killed him back when…when she—" His words failed him and he fell abruptly silent, his green eyes dark.

The silence was awkward as Thalia mulled over his words and Annabeth and Grover considered something to distract their friend.

"Mycenae?" Annabeth said suddenly, "as in the fortress palace that the original Perseus built? The son of Zeus?"

"She's had dreams about it for years," Percy admitted, happy to change the subject from Andy's terrible past. "Well, she hasn't since Tartarus, I don't think, not any dreams with Perseus…Carmella joked with her about it, saying she spent her nights flirting with a Greek king."

"Why would she flirt with him?" Thalia asked, arching an eyebrow when the three of them laughed. "What?"

"She's the reincarnation of Andromeda," Grover pointed out.

"She was named after herself?" Thalia snorted. "Wait –you guys were named after a pair of Ancient Greek _lovers?"_

Percy's cheeks flushed pink. The irony had never been lost on the pair and it was probably why his sister only called him 'Perseus' when she was really mad. "Shut up," he muttered.

"But Mycenae," Annabeth said, a faint smile brushing against her lips at the exchange, tapping a finger lightly against Percy's knee, "no one's been back to Greece since the gods moved with western civilization. I've heard it's crawling with monsters, more than America is…why would she even _want_ to go there?"

"She says Bacchry wants something in Mycenae so she's going to head him off." Percy frowned and Grover shuddered.

"I'd want to stay as far away from that guy as possible if I was her," he said, swallowing a piece of aluminum can.

Percy sighed. "Well, Andy's the type to run towards danger."

"I'm sure it's inherited." Percy rolled his eyes as Thalia's electric blue ones glittered.

"What were you talking about monkeys for?" Annabeth asked, flummoxed.

"Um, well, she was saying that she had to get off the phone because of some…lemurs?" Percy scratched the back of his head.

"She probably meant _Lemures_ ," Annabeth said, her lips curling slightly around the word, "they're supposed to be vengeful spirits."

"Really?" Thalia asked doubtfully.

"I've never heard that term," Grover agreed.

"It's because we call them _Keres, Lemures_ are Latin, not Greek," Annabeth said, swinging her legs over the edge of the dock.

"What, you mean like Roman?" Percy cocked an eyebrow. "Andy knows Latin, you know, she and Carmella, a lot of their spells have roots in Latin."

That was what Carmella had said when he'd caught them speaking the language. Percy couldn't understand a word of it, not like with Greek, but when he spoke in Greek, they always got a confused look on their faces, like they couldn't understand half of it.

"Are they fluent?"

Percy frowned. "I'm not sure. The only other language I've heard them speak is Italian, but they were required to learn a foreign language when they were kids."

"Why?" Thalia asked, leaning her elbows onto her knees.

"Some tradition, I'm not really sure," Percy sighed, rubbing at his eyes. He didn't like to think about the woman who had once kidnapped his sister from his mother and he definitely didn't like to think of how she'd been blood-adopted into another family when she'd already had one to begin with.

"Why's the whole Latin thing so important anyways?" Percy asked Annabeth who was still frowning in contemplation.

"She's mentioned Lupa before," Annabeth muttered more to herself than to the gathered friends, "and 'praetor' definitely has ties to Rome…"

Grover nudged her foot with his hoof and she jerked upright, suddenly aware of the eyes fixed on her, clearly not following her train of thought.

"There were rumors about some demigods who just left camp," Annabeth admitted, her grey eyes stormy, "even before…Luke." She swallowed thickly and Thalia looked away bitterly. "There was something about those demigods rejecting Greek teachings, but it was always just a rumor."

"This isn't really a topic you should be discussing in the open," another voice said and they all whipped around to look at another camper.

Her dark skin gleamed in the sunlight and it made her eyes look more golden than they already were, under a head of dreadlocks. Angelina Johnson was best known for being in charge of the few claimed children of Hecate in camp, even though there was no cabin but Hermes' for them to call home. She had a talent for being a difficult opponent in both the arena and in Capture the Flag with her manipulation of the Mist and her magical tricks.

Angelina's eyes lifted to the sky and there was an ominous thundering and the four friends realized that the once clear day had shifted to dark clouds.

"You want answers?" Angelina asked. "I'll meet you in Cabin Three."

Annabeth doubted she'd ever seen the daughter of Hecate quite so serious, and she had a thirst for knowledge, so she and the other three found themselves situated on the bunks of Poseidon Cabin while Angelina drew a symbol on the inside of the door with chalk that glowed faintly.

"She is Roman, isn't she?" Annabeth blurted out, unable to contain herself and Angelina's lips thinned.

"Yes, she's Andy Jackson-Black, senator of Fourth Cohort and daughter of Neptune, the first daughter of Neptune," Angelina said, crossing her arms.

"I – _what?"_ Percy said bleakly. "I don't understand, what's the difference really between the Roman and the Greek gods? Aren't they just renamed?"

"Some of them are," Angelina said, a leg twitching against the door. "The Romans adopted many of the Greek gods, but Roman demigods are harsher and in some ways stronger."

Annabeth was sure she wasn't the only one stung by that, given the aggravated huff from Thalia.

"It's rare for a Greek and Roman demigod to be born to the same parent, let alone by the same god in different aspects, but it's been done before," Angelina said, her eyes flickering briefly towards Thalia who went white. "My sister was Greek, but I'm Roman, like Andy, my mother is Trivia, technically, but magic is magic and my mother never really cared about changing her name. Most of the Romans simply call her Hecate, and she's fine with that."

" _You're_ Roman?" Grover balked, choking on his aluminum.

Angelina smirked. "Currently, I'm the only one in Camp Half-blood, but yes, I'm Roman."

"Is Carmella Roman?" Annabeth asked with interest, eyes gleaming and intense.

"The daughter of Venus," Angelina agreed before looking to Percy in concern. "Are you all right?"

"Of course I'm not _all right!"_ Percy was standing in seconds, gripping tightly at his hair. "I don't understand any of this! Why does it matter that Andy and Mella are Roman? Where're are they? Is there a Roman camp?"

"It's called Camp Jupiter, I haven't been back there since Sophie and I started living at Hecate House," Angelina said, her words carefully emotionless, but he could see a tightening around her eyes as she mentioned her younger sister, a daughter of Demeter, who had been killed in the great fire. "It's located on the western side of the US, the east is considered bad luck. The two camps aren't supposed to know about each other for good reason," she added, her golden eyes chilling. "Romans are ruthless and cunning and they wouldn't like the idea of a Greek demigod showing up in their camp after the last one betrayed their location to Saturn and nearly got them all drowned. Jupiter probably wouldn't like it either, so it'd probably be safer just to stay away from Roman affairs."

"Why aren't you back there, then?" Thalia asked coolly, tense at the thought of Jason, her long lost brother.

"That place stopped feeling like home a long time ago," Angelina responded, her eyes distant. "And you should probably keep Camp Jupiter quiet, if you know what's good for you."

Those eerie golden eyes gave off an odd glow that shimmered faintly around her body and Percy could plainly see the wand strapped to her arm and the sword at her side, ready to be grabbed easily.

"Both camps are involved in the war against Saturn, or Kronos, I suppose, they're not meant to know about each other and for good reason," her words were uncharacteristically grim. Percy didn't think he'd ever seen the daughter of Hecate (Trivia? He was still wrapping his mind around it all) quite so serious as she had throughout their conversation. "Swear on the River Styx that you won't reveal Camp Jupiter to Camp Half-blood."

There was an almost manic gleam in her eyes, but they gave her their solemn oath all the same.

"What was the point of telling us that if we can't tell anyone else?" Grover queried. "We could be stronger together against Kronos."

Angelina shook her head, her dreadlocks swishing about her face. "Some knowledge is dangerous. More likely Zeus or Jupiter would have struck you all down with his lightning than risk the two camps discovering one another."

Thalia flinched and the others grimaced.

"Besides, nearly every time Roman demigods crossed paths with Greek demigods they end up trying to kill each other. The only reason I was allowed to tell you was because you were coming close to figuring it out to begin with."

"How did you even _know_ about that?" Thalia asked curiously and Angelina tapped her forehead.

"I was having a nap," she said, "and Jupiter comes along, threatening bodily harm on a few far too curious minds _. 'Tell them only what you must,'_ he says _, 'too early for the camps to discover one another,'_ he says, _'do not fail me,'_ he says." Angelina groaned and rubbed at her head.

"I need to go," Percy said suddenly.

"Go?" Annabeth's eyebrows arched while Grover's furrowed.

"I need to have a talk with my mother," Percy said, disappearing out the door before any of them could stop him.

Several eyes found themselves on Angelina who appeared unperturbed about the whole thing.

"See you on the lava wall," she said, giving a wave and vanishing before reappearing shortly. "You should probably put it out of your mind for now, it won't do you any good."

She snapped her fingers and the knowledge of Camp Jupiter, while still known, drifted to the periphery of their minds. Not forgotten, yet deemed in that moment rather unimportant.

* * *

"You _knew_ she was Roman? You knew they both were and _you didn't tell me?"_ Percy hadn't been angry with his mother for a long time, but he was getting startlingly close. "What about Harry? Is he even Poseidon's?"

His mother tried to placate him, though she didn't move from the couch cushions she had fallen into when he'd arrived with that dark expression on his face.

"Harry's mother Lily was a Greek demigod," Sally assured him, "his father, on the other hand, was a descendant of Letus, Thanatos' Roman equivalent."

Percy buried the heels of his palms into his eyes as he fell back into the armchair. "Did _everyone_ know except me?" he muttered.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Sally said, rubbing at her own eyes. "You were just a baby when he came to see me, Neptune, he was so very different from Poseidon, but at the same time so similar. He was still the kind man I knew…just a bit more disciplined…then Andy came along and there was all that misfortune." His mother bit her lip and Percy suddenly regretted his anger.

"In Camp Jupiter children of Neptune are considered bad luck and to them Andy was no different," Sally sighed. "She was raised there from infancy, mostly by Lupa, the wolf goddess, she's the one that trained her, like Chiron trained you…and being part of a dark prophecy didn't give her any allies."

Percy remembered after Andy had lost her immortality, how she'd been requested to speak with a spirit and he'd tagged along. _Child of the sea, scorned by the blood of gods_ , _Who has beaten all the odds_ _were some of the odd words of the prophecy that had been recited._

"For awhile she hated Camp Jupiter, especially after…what happened." Sally swallowed the bile rising in her throat. "And after Hecate House burned down and she lost her immortality and wanted to stay at Camp Half-blood…I was _relieved."_

 _"I wanted to keep you close,"_ she'd said to him when he was twelve.

Percy's lips pulled into a grimace.

"Andy didn't want to make everything complicated for you," his mother said, moving forward to thread her fingers through his dark hair. "She was fine with being a daughter of Poseidon."

"But she's not." Percy was ashamed at how hoarse his voice was and his mother's eyes grew somber.

"No, she's not," she agreed. "You both have had such difficult lives…she wanted things to be simple between you two as brother and sister, and then we got Carmella and they agreed not to speak of their Roman blood."

"Why not?" Percy asked, startled. He was never ashamed to admit he was part Greek, and Andy had always laughed and said "Yeah, and I'm Italian," in a joking manner in response, but now that he thought about it, that might not have been a joke.

"Because the girls and Harry love you, Percy," Sally said, pressing a kiss to her son's hair. "And they didn't want to have to choose between you and Camp Jupiter."

Percy didn't understand; hadn't they done just that? Carmella had gone off and Andy and Harry had followed. But he could also understand wanting to get as far away from Camp Half-blood after the death of Marlene and Callie.

Percy sighed, wishing not for the first time that his relationship with his sister was far less complicated, like the one he had with Tyson.

They were going to have a serious talk when Andy got back from that quest of hers.

* * *

Reyna was more impressed at how Andy managed to convince everyone in the Library of Congress that Aeton was her seeing eye dog, than she was of how she'd skewered a _Lemure_ on her trident before returning it to a charm on the strap of leather around her wrist.

"What are we even doing in the Library of Congress?" Reyna asked while Andy mildly threatened to throw Jason over the balcony of the stairs they'd just climbed. Reyna wasn't entirely sure she was joking, but she was also sure that if she did do it, Jason would probably land on his feet.

"You pick up a few things when you've got my kind of experience," Andy gave her a wink and Jason rolled his eyes behind her back. "Lupa told me about it back when I trained with her, not a lot of people know about it…which is probably a good thing, now that I think about it…"

"And what exactly is _'it'?"_ Jason queried, arching an eyebrow that made Andy clench her hand painfully around his arm (she was playing the part of one who needed to be guided, after all), making him grimace.

Andy's lips curled into a knowing smirk. "That would be a secret room, dear cousin," she said, "one that contains demigod knowledge from Greece to Rome, and if there's something on Mycenae anywhere, it's there."

Reyna swallowed thickly as Andy punched in the code and swung the door open. "Welcome to the demigods' secret room."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will mostly focus on the trio, and Andy's totally going to have to have some words with her brother after the quest, it'll be great, and I really liked the idea of him knowing because Andy's been keeping all these secrets from him for years, and that's not really good for the soul.


	7. Where Mycenae Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, a lot of excitement for what Andy's up to, thanks for all the support. CBD is probably going to be one of the longest books in the series, encompassing the events of Titan's Curse and Battle of the Labyrinth as well as some stuff in between.
> 
> No Nico for awhile, sadly, but there's going to be plenty of chaos in the fic to keep you lot occupied, I promise, this is the book where everything comes to light ;) Hopefully, it'll be shocking for everyone involved.

The demigods' secret room was rather large and filled to the brim with books and scrolls, many with cobwebs spun over them, the contents unread for so many years.

"Why don't more people know about this place?" Reyna asked in awe, dropping her bag by the door with Jason's and twisting around in order to take it all in.

"Well, there's a lot of information here," Andy admitted, scratching her cheek as she considered the books on the shelves. "And some people shouldn't know too much about them."

"Octavian," Jason and Reyna agreed as one, before glancing towards one another while Andy frowned.

"He's one of them," she conceded with a frown. "Now we just need to find some information about the last location of Mycenae…"

"Wouldn't it just be easier to remember everything from back then?" Jason asked, following after Andy as she moved forward to inspect the stacks of books.

"If I remembered everything about my past life then I'd drive myself mad, _again,"_ Andy remarked dryly. "The whole point of souls going through the River Lethe is to wash away their memories from their previous life."

"Um, just a little confused," Reyna said, waving a hand to get their attention. "Previous life?"

"I thought everyone in camp knew about that," Andy mentioned a bit flummoxed towards Jason who shrugged.

"Well, she's kind of new," he admitted and Reyna tapped her foot on the ground for emphasis.

"I'm the reincarnation of the original Andromeda," Andy informed Reyna who had to pause, trying to comprehend what she'd said.

"You mean, _the_ Andromeda?" she said bleakly. "Princess Andromeda?"

That made Andy frown. "See, that's always annoyed me. _Obviously_ Andromeda was a queen at the time of her death, not a princess, but no, let's have history record her as a damsel that needed saving by Perseus." She crossed her arms with a huff and Jason rolled his eyes.

"The point about the River Lethe?" he prompted.

"Well, it doesn't work as easily on someone who kills themselves with a weapon that was cooled in the very same river," Andy explained, pulling out a dagger from a holster on her thigh. It was a simple bronze knife with leather wrapped around the hilt. "Things kind of seep through the cracks, which is why I still have dreams about that time that are really memories…Letus told me," she added defensively when the pair stared at her for too long.

"My point is, my memories of Mycenae are from a long time ago and I couldn't have told you where to find it if you asked me," Andy said dryly. "There are ruins more inland but I'm pretty _sure_ the fortress was seaside…"

And then she drifted off, fingers dancing across the spines of books and spare parchment, allowing Reyna to cast a dubious glance towards Jason who gave a small shrug before following his cousin's example, but it was a few more moments before Reyna complied as well.

Andy was an odd sort, that much she could tell with the limited amount of time she had spoken to her. Reincarnations weren't all that rare, but they weren't usually reincarnations of famous ancient Greek or even Roman individuals.

"What do you remember?" she asked while flipping through the pages of an old book and Andy looked up in surprise.

"I remember her being small, maybe ten or so," she said slowly, her eyes distant, "…running away from the palace in Aethiopia when she found out her father had betrothed her to his brother."

Reyna made a face. Marrying her own uncle? _Ugh_.

"She made it to a dock where Perseus was fishing, that was how they met, you know." A smile flitted across her lips briefly. "Then I remember him visiting her before leaving on a quest, proclaiming their love for each other…and I remember later when they were married and he had to leave to fight in the war and he left her his seal, and I remember a time when she fought side by side with him and also a time when he locked her in a tower to keep her from joining him on the battlefield…and I remember how it felt when she took her dagger to her skin and bled out before Perseus' funeral pyre leaving her son to find her body."

Reyna's eyes widened and Jason nudged Andy's ankle with his foot, forcing her to tear those unnerving eyes of hers away from Reyna.

They worked in silence after that, mostly because Reyna wasn't quite sure what to say. Jason and Andy had history, they knew each other and must have known each other awhile. They had experience, some in ways she shuddered to think of, because she remembered a Centurion at camp talking about Andy like her whole life was some kind of tragedy, like her past one had been.

"There might be something over here," Jason said after nearly an hour had passed and the other two crossed to his side as he spread out an old map that someone had clearly drawn by hand ages previously as well as an account of a seismic event by a philosopher who hadn't signed his name.

"It sounds like the palace sank into the earth following a conquest by the current king," Andy mused.

"You can ready Greek?" Jason asked dubiously.

"Bits and pieces," Andy conceded, "my brother's fluent."

Reyna scowled at the mention of Percy Jackson, but she didn't comment on it as it had no bearing on their current situation.

"I think the villagers nearby saw it as the will of the gods," Andy said, frowning over the Greek lettering. "They relocated afterwards…no one's seen the fortress since then."

"So it's underground?" Reyna asked, her brow furrowing.

"Or underwater," Jason added, shooting a glance towards Andy. "Maybe both."

She wrinkled her nose. "Water I can handle, earth, not so much."

"You realize we're kind of making this up as we go," Jason added as he looked over the map of Ancient Greece that was just a bit different from the present day.

"Lighten up, Grace, you need some chaos in your life!" Andy grinned, clapping him on the shoulder even as he gave her a rather bland stare.

"I do have chaos in my life," he defended, "its name is Andromeda Jackson-Black!"

Reyna stifled her snort as the pair descended into bickering once more. They were an odd pair, that much she'd managed to gather without too much effort, and they seemed to enjoy their minor arguments.

"I married your brother once, you know."

"What does that have to do with _anything?"_

"Um, are we going to stay here all day?" Reyna felt the need to ask, if only that it caused the two to cease their complaints. "Don't we have a quest to get to?"

Andy's lips curled into a smirk. "I like her," she decided, much to Reyna's exasperation, "but give me a few seconds…" She pulled her wand out of her sleeve and both of Reyna's eyebrows rose high on her forehead in surprise.

"Summoning charms are fourth year spells," Andy admitted grudgingly, "but I learned it from one of the campers at Hecate House… _Accio books on Mycenae!"_

There was a moment of silence following that pronouncement, only broken by Jason: "Maybe it's not specific enough?" he considered.

Andy glowered just shortly before she was abruptly brained in the head by three separate books and two scrolls. She crumpled under them with a groan and Aeton gave a whine from the door that was clearly meant to be taken as a question to whether she was all right or not.

"This is why I stick to swords," she groaned, pulling herself out from under the pile while Jason sniggered, but Reyna was far more interested in how she gathered the books and scrolls and piled them into the little leather bag of tricks clipped to her belt loops, but the bag didn't appear to gain in weight or bulge outwards.

"Where does it all go?" Reyna wondered aloud.

"Undetectable extension charm," Andy said proudly, patting the bag. "I didn't enchant it, obviously, that's _way_ out of my league, anyways, come on, we're wasting daylight."

Jason rolled his eyes as Aeton leapt to his feet, eagerness lighting those eerie blood-red eyes of his as Andy pushed the door open only to pause at the sight beyond.

It was a man wearing a distinguished military uniform that Reyna was certain, and she was almost certain it was naval. His dark hair was cropped short –a military cut– but his eyes were the same green as Andy's barring their shattered quality. And he had a similar aura of power to Andy and Jason, though much more dangerous, more powerful, the kind a god would have.

"Grand-niece," Neptune said, his voice calm like the sea as his eyes swept from one child to the next, starting with Reyna, before moving to Jason, "Nephew," and then finally coming to a stop on Andy, "Daughter."

"Father," Andy said after a moment of trying to regain the use of her tongue, "I haven't seen you in awhile."

The last time they'd spoken, many of the differences that Andy had had towards the god that had sired her had been resolved but their relationship wasn't nearly as good as the one Percy had with his Greek aspect, but they both had 'daddy issues' so it wasn't that much of a difference.

"I've been busy conferencing with Tethys, after that business at Wolf House," Neptune replied, crossing his arms, "and keeping you safe and hidden in the Tiber River while you healed."

Embarrassment flooded through Andy, turning her cheeks pink.

"I require a moment with my daughter," he said, speaking over her head to Jason who glanced uneasily to Andy and then back to the god.

"Um, okay," he said, "we'll, uh, just be downstairs waiting with Aeton." He tugged lightly on Reyna's wrist before gesturing to the hellhound-hybrid. "Come on, Aeton."

Reyna glanced back as they took to the stairs, but Andy's face betrayed nothing other than confusion.

"I suppose it must be inherited, this recklessness you and your brother possess," her father said wryly when they'd gone.

"Probably," Andy said, unconcerned, mostly because it sounded almost as if her father was insulting himself.

"I don't agree with this quest of yours, Andromeda," Neptune remarked shrewdly and Andy scowled as she rested her hands on her hips aggressively.

"No one knows anything about this quest," she said coolly, a response which made her father's lips twist into a smile.

"Rumors can spread like wildfire, _Tesoro,"_ he said and Andy found the endearment annoying when she wasn't the one using it, as hypocritical as it was, and she huffed, looking away from him. "Dangers lie in Mycenae, Andy, and I'm afraid of what you'll find there."

Andy's brow furrowed and her arms fell from her hips to hang loosely at her sides. "What d'you mean? What will I find?"

"Truth and lies, sorrow and pain…there is so much about yourself you don't know," Neptune said ominously, moving so that Andy didn't have to crane her neck nearly so much to look at him.

"Are you talking about when I was Queen?" Andy asked a bit flummoxed.

"No," her father said gravely, "I am talking about this life, Andy, and this is the kind of truth that will shake you to your core."

She couldn't help but swallow thickly, not being able to come up with a proper response to him before vanished in a flash, forcing her to avert her eyes.

Her father never seemed to like giving her straight answers.

"What was that about?" Jason asked when she descended the stairs to join them.

"I'm not really sure," Andy said with a frown present on her lips.

* * *

Greece was beautiful and very humid, that was the first thing that Reyna noticed before she was hit of a wave of anxiety, like she'd trespassed on some unseen boundary. Maybe it was an innate thing, for a Roman to feel out of sorts in Greece, to feel as though they were in danger and exposed on Greece's soil.

Jason twitched a bit, so she got the feeling that he felt the same way about it, but Andy hardly blinked and Reyna couldn't help but get the feeling that it was because she was just more used to it than the other two.

Aeton had shrunk several sizes before disappearing into the nearest shadow.

"Is he supposed to do that?" Reyna asked Andy as she frowned in the sunlight, shading her eyes with one hand.

"Well, he is a hybrid," Andy conceded with a shrug, "don't worry, he's probably in the Underworld recharging."

"He was literally a huge dog and then he was a small one." Reyna was a bit flummoxed that neither demigod appeared phased in the slightest.

"He does that," Jason said, grinning as he glanced towards his cousin. "He's weird like that."

"He's not _weird,"_ Andy scowled, "he's just a hybrid!"

Jason rolled his eyes as Andy pulled a map free from the bag at her waist, her scowl still present on her lips. "Okay, so present day Mycenae should be close to where Nafplio is… _hypothetically."_

"Hypothetically?" Reyna repeated.

"Well, everyone from that time has come down with an unfortunate case of 'dead' in case you weren't aware," she said dryly.

There was a bit more bite in her words than Reyna had been expecting and clearly from the look Jason cast towards his cousin, one he hadn't been expecting either.

He took the map from her with a furrowed brow as she raised a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Hey, are you all right?"

"It's nothing," Andy said, shutting her eyes and drawing her eyebrows closer together as she winced, "it's like a heat shimmer, you know, like when you're in a car and it's hard to see if there's any road in front of you?"

Reyna hadn't spent much time in cars and she would hazard a guess that Jason hadn't either, but instead, she said, "Sure."

"That's what this is like," Andy groaned. "Like I'm looking at something that's not there."

Her head throbbed a few seconds more like painful pulses of blood rushing through her veins, but then it stopped and Andy opened her eyes to clarity.

"Never mind," she said, a bit confused about its sudden disappearance, "it was probably just the change of location."

But Andy was far too used to something like that for it to affect her, more likely she had seen a flash of the Greece that she remembered, but Andy shoved that thought viciously down.

* * *

Jason thought they were doing fairly well when it took the monsters an hour and a half to strike out against them. They must have been godly scent beacons by now with Jason and Andy alone.

It was the shrieking cry that spurred him into action long before the three caught sight of the beasts.

" _Gryphon!"_ he yelled as the creatures swooped down and they all dived; Andy vaulted to the left and Jason and Reyna took the right.

Gryphons were supposed to reside up north, generally in the Canadian regions, it was startling to see them in the southern ones, but, then again, they were a Greek creation. The two swooping down were not what they looked to be in Greek art pieces, with a body sleek and black like a panther, the head of an eagle, and wings that looked so sharp that the feathers could have been made of steel, unless that was a trick of the light.

Andy already had her trident in hand, twisting as she leapt out of the way, throwing it through the air so that it snagged one wing but hardly did more than aggravate the Gryphon.

"I thought you had a better arm!" Jason yelled from the opposite side, batting the nearest Gryphon back with Ivlivs.

"Oh, shut up!" Andy fired back, gripping another charm on her leather bracelet that caused a new weapon to spring forth, this time her faithful sword, Harpe, launching forward, an action that Reyna replicated, jabbing her spear forwards the Gryphon closest to her, making it rear back with a startled cry.

Andy's strike against her Gryphon wasn't deep enough to reduce it to dust, but it certainly was enough to anger it into wrapping a talon around her bicep and yanking her up into the air with an audible yelp.

It was a swift jab from both Reyna and Jason that reduced their Gryphon to dust and it was only then that they realized they were down a quest-mate.

"Where'd Andy go?" Reyna asked flummoxed, shading her eyes with her hand as she looked around, but both girl and Gryphon had vanished.

Jason frowned before tilting his head back before remarking, unperturbed, "Oh, there she is."

Reyna followed his line of sight, but they were so high up that they were difficult to make out. "Shouldn't we, you know, do something?" she asked cautiously.

"I can't throw my pilum that high accurately, can you?" Jason prompted and Reyna turned pink; if he couldn't then she definitely couldn't. "Don't worry, she'll come back down eventually."

Reyna was new to the odd relationship that Andy and Jason had, but she doubted very much that Andy would survive a fall from her current height.

"That fall will kill her!" Reyna's eyes were wide as one of the two figures vanished so suddenly that it couldn't have been anything but the Gryphon and Andy began to plummet towards the ground with a bit of a belated scream. Reyna shut her eyes before she could see the girl impact with the ground, only opening them in surprise a moment later at the sound of an annoyed voice.

"Thanks for the assist, Golden Boy, I'm feeling the love," Andy complained and Reyna balked at how she was hovering a foot above the ground before dropping lightly to it.

"Because I didn't know that you had enchanted shoes," Jason crossed his arms, snorting for good measure.

Andy gave an annoyed huff and Reyna couldn't help but think they were the strangest pair of demigods she had ever met.

* * *

Reyna thought she was done with surprises when night fell and it was decided that it would be best to camp for the night and start up their search the next morning. Personally, she was wiped out; Greece had more monsters than she'd been expecting. The upside was that she was getting some experience in the real world, the downside was they didn't seem to stop.

Jason had expended the most of his energy using a lightning bolt to fry what had looked to be a horde of Empousai and Reyna and Andy had practically had to drag him to where they ended up camping, but Andy and Reyna were both bearing their own cuts and bruises from a few starving harpies.

"It's bigger on the inside," Reyna remarked dubiously when Andy pulled a tent from the bag at her hip and set it up and they helped get Jason inside. The tent was more like a cloth house, if you asked her, modest, with two rooms and a main area with chairs and a couch.

"There's bigger," Andy remarked with a shrug. "I just had Kreacher get the smallest one he could find; demigods don't really need luxury."

Reyna wasn't sure she understood half of what left Andy's mouth.

"Come on," Andy said once she'd gotten Jason up onto a bed, which he promptly passed out on, "we should get a fire started."

"Won't that alert the monsters?" Reyna asked, following her out of the tent's flaps to watch her gather thick pieces of wood from the environment around them.

"Probably," Andy admitted, "but we're already in their nest, there's not much we can do about that."

She dumped the wood into a pile and reached her arm deep into her bag to pull out a lighter and the next moment there was a fire blazing before them.

"That doesn't bother you?"

Andy arched an eyebrow. "Trust me, after Tartarus, this is pretty tame…give me your arm, I've got some bandages in here somewhere…"

Reyna watched her rifle through her bag, muttering in aggravation to herself. She was very different from the fiery girl she'd met on Circe's island, the one that flinched away from being touched, but she'd still tensed with Reyna had accidentally brushed her shoulder against hers.

"Why do they call you the Wolf?" she asked when Andy brightened, pulling a first aid kit from the bag (really, was there no limit to what it could hold?) and Andy paused, her smile falling slightly.

"Well, I've killed more monsters than anyone in camp, and with Lupa's ruthlessness," she admitted, "though it probably didn't help that a lot of camp was afraid of me when I was younger."

Reyna frowned, wincing as Andy wrapped a bandage over the long scratches on her arm.

"What's Camp Jupiter saying about me now?" she asked lightly and Reyna lifted her eyes from the white material against her arm to meet the ones of green fire.

"They say you froze camp once and were given immortality for a few years as punishment—"

That actually made Andy laugh. " _Punishment?_ Well, not _really._ I froze camp, though, that's totally on me, but Jupiter gave me immortality in order to take it away."

"Why?" Reyna asked flummoxed and that was clearly the wrong thing to ask because Andy's face grew terribly dark.

"To find a traitor," she said grimly, "I failed, obviously, and everyone in camp nearly died because of it."

So that murmur of a wave sent to wipe out the camp hadn't been a rumor, after all. That was a bit… _frightening._

Reyna leaned back surreptitiously glancing down Andy's back. She'd take off her army jacket to wrap a bandage around her own arm, tying it off with her teeth, but Reyna could see the claw marks on her shoulder from some kind of large animal, perhaps a hellhound, yet that wasn't the thing that caught her eyes the most, it was the rough ridges that could be seen through the fabric of the shirt, like skin that hadn't knit together right.

Her brow furrowed, but she didn't mention it and the pair descended into companionable silence, their hands tensed over their respective weapons, staring out into the darkness.

* * *

Jason dreamed he was looking out of an arching window to the rolling surf, but it made him frown. Jason was no stranger to odd dreams, true, his weren't nearly as cryptic and peculiar as the ones Andy had a tendency to get, but they were odd nonetheless. And it was only when he looked around that he realized he wasn't alone and his hand leapt for the coin in his pocket.

"Peace, brother," the man said, raising his hands to placate him, "I mean you no harm."

Jason stalled briefly, startled by the word: " _Brother?"_

Then the man stepped more clearly into the light and he gaped a little. His eyes were blue, the exact color of the sky, and his hair was resting in tousled curls. The likeness was uncanny; no wonder Andy sometimes did double takes.

"You're Perseus," he realized.

"Indeed," Perseus said with a careful half-smile, "and you're Jason, Andromeda's cousin."

"She doesn't like being called that," Jason felt the need to point out.

"No, she doesn't," Perseus chuckled. "But it matters not, it remains her name…I need you to pass a message on to her."

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Jason asked defensively, hiding his curiosity with ease and Perseus expelled a sharp breath, a crease appearing on his brow.

"I _can't,"_ he uttered with vexation, "she's blocked me since Tartarus, it has to be you." His eyes fixed on Jason and they were so serious that Jason couldn't help but swallow.

"Tell her that if she continues, there is more than one danger you might face. What she thinks he wants, he does not."

Confusion marred Jason's face. "What—?"

"What lies within Andromeda's tomb is very dangerous and coveted, yes, but there is something else he seeks, tell her that," Perseus warned before he and the surrounding faded into nothingness.

"What does that _mean?"_ Jason demanded, but no answer came. He was only left with more questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perseus and his cryptic advice, darn. I don't know if you'll see him all that much anymore, but Andromeda should show up with Nico's dreams at some point.
> 
> The Mycenae quest is the basis for a lot of stuff in this book, so there's a lot of good stuff coming up.


	8. The Winding Path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got so many ideas for things that will be happening close to the end of this book, but we'll see Nico before a lot of that happens, and when he sees Percy, let's just say I'm really going to enjoy him realizing the Jackson brother and sister are both his type.

"You know, don't you?"

Thalia had snagged Angelina on her was to sword practice in the arena, stalling her from following the rest of Hermes cabin.

Angelina arched an eyebrow. "About what?"

Thalia gritted her teeth together in annoyance. "About _Jason."_ Her brother's name hissed through her teeth, the first time it had been spoken from her lips in a long while.

"Rumors fly when Jupiter sires a child," Angelina said simply.

Thalia's grip grew painfully tight around Angelina's arm. "But do you _know_ him?" she pressed.

And Angelina looked her in the eye and lied through her teeth. "I've never met him, neither has anyone at camp."

She almost regretted it with how Thalia's shoulders sagged and her face fell; Angelina knew what it was like to lose a sibling. But she also feared Jupiter more, and his warnings still echoed in her ears, his threats like thunder.

* * *

Jason took second watch with Andy when Reyna went back to catch some shut-eye. Andy kept her eyes fixed on the darkness, beyond which Jason was certain monsters were lying in wait, her trident crooked against her shoulder, her grip on it tight.

He hadn't seen her use the trident very much, but it was lightweight with very sharp prongs, the same prongs that had ended Callie Evaine's life.

She was rubbing at one of her wrists and in the firelight Jason could see scarring there, like skin that had been rubbed raw underneath manacles.

He swallowed. "I've had words with your ex," he said after a moment and Andy smirked, not looking up from the darkness.

"You've never met my ex," she said. "Only Carmella has."

"I mean Perseus," Jason said and Andy froze as if carved from ice, "I saw him in a dream. Personally, I think he'd rather have talked to you."

"Yeah, well, we can't all get what we want," Andy muttered, raking her free hand through her hair, tugging on the blue strands.

"Did he visit you a lot? I mean, before Tartarus?" Jason asked curiously, his interest piquing. Of course, he got strange dreams, but having a ghost come back for seconds wasn't exactly common.

"Sometimes," Andy conceded, "he'd tell me a lot of stories, things I didn't remember, he was very sweet." But then she frowned. "Of course, he made everything between him and Andromeda seem a bit romantic, you know, like they didn't fight or anything. And after what happened with Cupid and –and Nico…I don't know, I guess I just didn't want to see him again."

"You were mad at him?"

"No, of course not," Andy said, raising a hand to rub at her chest, under which Jason knew was the mark that Cupid had left. "It was –he was just a memory and I didn't like having him in my dreams when Nico and I…" Andy swallowed looked away. "Besides," she said finally, "I can't always have an ancient king in my head, it's not supposed to be like that."

Jason wondered if she actually had a reason for sending him away, or if she just didn't want to say it in front of him.

"So, what did he say?" Andy asked uncomfortably after a moment of silence had passed.

"He said what you think he wants, he doesn't," Jason said, "does he mean Bacchry?"

Andy had gone white in the firelight, leaning her head against the shaft of the trident. "Probably," she muttered, scratching at her wrist again like she could feel things crawling under her skin.

"What do you think he's looking for in Mycenae?" Jason's eyes fixed on her, but she did not meet his gaze, instead opting to gaze fixedly into the darkness.

"Do you remember what I said about Perseus and Andromeda when we were in Tartarus?" she asked him, squeezing her hands around her trident every so often as if to remind her that it was still there.

"Um…" Jason furrowed his brow. "Well, you said that together they were pretty dangerous, right?"

Andy bobbed her head. "But Andromeda was a long distance fighter and her weapon of choice was the bow." She cast a significant look to Jason who could feel the realization dawning on him.

"And great warriors are always buried or burned with their weapons," he uttered with wide eyes. "That's what he's looking for in Mycenae? Her bow? But it wasn't like Harpe, was it?" Harpe, Perseus' blade, and, subsequently Andy's, was still a small silver charm on the strap of leather that wrapped around her wrist.

Andy frowned at that, making her nose wrinkle. "Well, Harpe was a gift from Zeus to his son…I think there were some people that thought it was the same weapon Kronos used to kill his father, but that's a scythe. Andromeda's bow was a gift too, but from Artemis and Apollo."

"Both of them?" Jason arched an eyebrow.

_There were calluses on Andromeda's fingers as she drew the drawstring back, breathing out sharply before releasing the arrow, hitting the heart of the soldier built of straw._

" _You are very good."_

_She turned, shading her eyes to take in the form of two very different figures._

"Well, they are the patrons of archers," Andy mused, "I guess they took a personal interest in someone who worked hard to be skilled in that art of war…supposedly it's a bow that can't miss."

"That would be handy," Jason couldn't help but agree. "But where did you learn all that?"

"Some dreams," Andy admitted, tucking a curl behind her ear, "some of what Perseus told me, some from Asteria."

The Bow of Andromeda would be quite the prize.

Andy pulled herself upright and gave a wide yawn. "I think I'm going to go and get some shut eye. Good night."

"G'night," Jason said, feeling her squeeze his shoulder as she passed him by.

He supposed that Asteria would know an awful lot, being a Titan, but it seemed a bit odd to him how most of Andy's information came from her…like she always knew specifically what Andy needed to know…

* * *

Sirius' trial was coming closer and closer, something he had never dared to hope for, so he was getting rather used to being tugged out of his cell and put in that dingy questioning room, his shackles locked to the table and sitting opposite someone he had never met.

Her hair was a bronze color but her eyes were an even odder violet.

"Hello," the girl said, "my name's Carmella Jackson, I'm your step-sister's adoptive sister."

Her eyes gained a brief gleam before it faded and Sirius couldn't help but wonder if she knew how miserable she looked.

"Hello," he said finally. "How is Andy?" He hadn't heard much about the girl who'd been blood-adopted into his family.

"Better than she was a few weeks ago, probably," Carmella said, glancing towards the door, beyond which an Auror was standing guard, "seeing as she was in a coma at that point."

Sirius blinked once and then he blinked again. There were so many things about his step-sister (well, somewhat, step-sister, if he was being completely accurate) that he didn't understand, most of which had to do with why she was blood-adopted by his mother when her own was clearly still alive.

"I – _what?"_ he managed to say.

"She over-exerted herself," Carmella informed him, brushing her hair out of her eyes, "saved a lot of people, though." But there was still something darker behind her eyes that Sirius couldn't place. "She's out questing with her cousin right now, so I'd thought I'd check up on you for her."

"Oh," Sirius said flummoxed.

"You're a descendant of Venus, right?" Carmella probed, leaning forward against the table with interest, smiling slightly. "I heard that's the rumor with the Black family, is it true?"

"That's the rumor," Sirius found himself saying before he could stop himself, like she was charming him into speaking, "there's probably not a lot of Venus blood left in me, Venus' son was pretty far back on my family tree."

"Too bad," Carmella said. "I'm her daughter."

Sirius arched an eyebrow. "Exactly how many demigod children does Andy's mother have?"

"Well, Percy and Andy are Sally and Poseidon and Neptune's –don't ask, it's _really_ complicated and it might take an hour or so to explain– then there's me with Venus for my mum, and Harry as the grandson of Poseidon and descendant of Letus. So, just four."

"Sally Jackson must be a saint," Sirius decided, despite never having met Andy's mother and Carmella gave him a smile.

"I'll tell her you said that."

The silence that settled between them was nothing short of awkward. It was similar with Andy herself, since Sirius' mother –as much as he had loathed to call her such when she'd been alive– had basically kidnapped her. It wasn't as though Andy had wanted to be raised by a woman other than her mother, to be raised apart from her brother. But if there was one thing Andy had understood, it was to make some good from a rather bad situation.

"Harry wants to come to your trial," Carmella added after a moment, breaking through the silence and Sirius jerked his head up in surprise. "Sally thinks that's a bad idea because he's so famous around here. I don't think she's comfortable exposing him like that…or hearing about what you saw that night."

Sirius wanted more than anything to see his godson, he wanted to see Harry more than he wanted his freedom, and he wanted that _a lot_ , but he could also understand the unknown Sally Jackson for wanting to keep Harry away. The press would eat him alive and he wasn't even Hogwarts age yet.

"I suppose that's the best," Sirius admitted a bit forlornly.

Carmella gave him a slight smile that told him she could garner just how he felt. "He'll be by to see you after you get exonerated, he made Andy swear on the River Styx." She chuckled lightly, remembering the determination glinting in those green eyes of his, tugging on Andy's arm, glowering until she relented with a bit of exasperation.

Sirius couldn't help but bark a laugh. "Sounds a bit like his dad, if you ask me."

Carmella shrugged. After all, she'd never known Lily or James Potter. They had been dead long before she'd met Andy. If anything, Harry was very much like the Jacksons, perhaps taking his cues from them after living with them for so long.

But she cleared her thoughts of that in the stead of looking Sirius over with a critical eye. Carmella only knew just a bit of healing but she was sure just from looking at Sirius that he was going to need some serious healing. Mind Healing was definitely a must from how many years he'd spent in close proximity to Dementors, but it was more obvious when one considered his physicality. His cheeks were sunken and his cheekbones sharp, as if they were ready to protrude from his skin in a matter of weeks, and she was sure that if someone was to look under those ratty robes of his, they would find his ribs sticking out rather predominantly.

"I should go," Carmella said, glancing towards the Auror outside the door who was shifting just enough to tell her that he didn't like the idea of Sirius being out of his cell for too long, regardless of whether or not he was going on trial to be exonerated of the charges brought against him so long ago. "I've got roll call tonight…but I'll tell Harry that you're still kicking."

Sirius spared her a smile. "And if I don't see your sister, you tell her thank you for me."

"You'll see her," Carmella promised with a certainty Sirius couldn't help but admire as the girl made her way out of the room and Sirius was taken back to his cell.

* * *

_The sounds of battle echoed in her ears as she rushed along the ground, dodging between bodies and stray swipes of other engaging enemies with daggers and swords. Andromeda's own blade swung wildly at her waist, but she'd never trusted swords as much as she had bows._

_The helmet didn't fit her head right and her chest plate felt confining, but Andromeda knew better than to remove her helmet and reveal that she was a woman._

_She ducked under a swipe from a sword, but it didn't stop her from her ascent of Miletus' palace's outer wall. If there was one thing that an archer was good at, it was long range kills, and Andromeda was practically useless in the middle of the battle._

_Her sandals skidded in the dirt as she came to a stop beyond the wall, ducking once more to avoid the spray of arrows coming down on her, looping her bow over her shoulders before pulling out two particularly sharp daggers from where they were bound at her hip._

_She stabbed them into the junctions between the stones and hoisted herself up, little by little, flattening herself close to the wall when arrows came too close._

_It took some doing, but then Andromeda had pulled herself over the edge of the wall, drawing her bow and threading an arrow in a single motion._

_In a matter of moments she'd dispatched the archers of Miletus and then she took up position, drawing a new arrow and firing it out into the crowd. It was nearly impossible to find her husband in the crowd, he was wearing the same armor as the other Myceneans, but there was a flash of bright blonde hair when his helmet was pulled free and Andromeda would've recognized that face anywhere, no matter the distance._

_And he didn't even see the man coming behind him._

_When he twisted around, aiming the sword only to find the man had crumpled with a sword through his head where the helmet didn't cover. He twisted to look to a single figure positioned on the high wall._

_It was a nearly impossible shot._

_His eyes widened. "Andromeda," he murmured through gritted teeth._

* * *

Andy, Reyna decided, was a vicious fighter. She fought like a wolf, cutthroat and bloodthirsty. Reyna saw her take the head off an Empousai before it became nothing more than dust, returning to Tartarus.

She must have been staring, because Andy paused, looking towards her.

"I had a bad night," Andy said defensively and Reyna held up her hands in surrender.

"No judgment," she said, "but you've got to show me how you did that leaping stab."

Andy gave her a feral grin in return while Jason rolled his eyes for good measure.

"There's a lot more monsters around here than yesterday," he mused as he and Andy looked over Reyna's shoulder as she pulled the map out to ascertain their location. They were mostly sticking to the back-roads, mostly because it kept them out of view from other mortals. The Mist was helpful, but it was far easier to deal with monster attacks when mortals weren't around.

"Well, we do stink," Andy pointed out, making Reyna snort. "It's only going to get worse the longer we're here. We have to find the palace _today."_

There was something in the insistence in her voice that made her anxiety rather clear, but then a loud grumble from one of the three's stomachs stalled them briefly.

Reyna and Andy looked to Jason who turned faintly pink. "What?" he asked defensively. "I'm hungry."

They'd used up the last of their granola bars for breakfast and that had been hours ago, now it was nearly lunch time.

"Maybe there's somewhere to eat nearby?" Reyna muttered as they all looked over the map, looking up when a beast gave a mighty roar.

A Hydra had appeared, huge and scaly with its nine heads swinging and bearing sharp teeth.

Andy stared at it rather blankly, desensitized from fighting so many monsters over the years. "Do you want me to take that or do you want to handle it?" she asked the pair and Reyna was staring at the monster, tense as she reached for her spear, but Jason sighed.

"I've got this one," he said, sounding rather put upon.

Andy shrugged her shoulders, directing Reyna's attention downwards to the map once more. "All right, so we're right here…" She tapped her finger at a specific spot on the map. "We're in where Mycenae was considered to be on the old maps."

Neither of them paid any attention to Jason who was now flying around the Hydra's many heads, stabbing his sword at them, though careful enough not to decapitate them, because everyone at Camp Jupiter knew better than to cut off a head that could grow two more (Hydras might have been Greek monsters, but they were still monsters and too many Romans had run into Greek monsters to not take them seriously).

"But I'm pretty sure we're more likely to find it over here," Andy mused, drawing her finger from the spot Reyna had indicated, all the way to the coast line.

"You really think it's preserved underwater?" Reyna inquired, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Maybe only part of it ended up underwater," Andy mused thoughtfully, "maybe the rest of it is just under the earth."

But that didn't really answer Reyna's question, though they were both distracted by a mighty yell as Jason stabbed the Hydra up in its chest, causing an explosion of dust that practically caked the son of Jupiter.

Jason sneezed and both girls laughed.

* * *

They ended up finding a small café that they managed to each order a plate of fried eggs and sausages that tasted far better than anything else Reyna had eaten for breakfast.

Andy had disappeared up to the counter to pay with some euros that she'd kept in her wallet from the last time she had been in Britain.

"Do you think she's all right?" Reyna asked Jason, capitalizing on their companion's absence, glancing to where Andy was leaning against the counter, leg bouncing as she waited for her change.

"What d'you mean?" Jason swallowed his sausage, frowning as he looked towards his cousin.

"She's different from yesterday," Reyna said, "I don't know, maybe she's colder?"

Jason snorted. "She's got a skill with making ice."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

And Jason did, he knew far too well. She had been very short-tempered when she'd woken up that morning, but her temper had cooled since then, which might have had something to do with the number of monster they'd had to kill; battle was always something Andy had been good at.

"I'm sure it was just a bad dream," Jason decided. "I had one too."

"About what?"

"Perseus giving me a message to pass along, there wasn't much else to it," Jason frowned. "She thinks Bacchry wants the bow Andromeda was buried with, but he thought it was something else."

"Bacchry," Reyna sounded out the name carefully, winding her fingers around her cup of milk, "the guy that was exiled from camp?"

Exiles weren't that common, but Reyna had heard terrible stories about that one man. There were rumors that a son of Bacchus had gone off the reservation and killed one demigod senator and kidnapped another. And it had always been painfully obvious that that other demigod had been Andy.

"Yeah, that guy," Jason muttered. "He was supposed to go to prison, Andy had a lot of evidence against him, but he disappeared before they could sentence him."

"What happens if we run into him?" Reyna asked, furrowing her brow.

"Personally, dropping a building on him would be pretty nice," Andy said, sliding into the booth beside Jason and Reyna jolted at her sudden appearance. "Can we change the subject, _please_ ; Bacchry always makes me sick to my stomach."

"Anything else I can get you?" The waiter had come forward, an attractive young man with dark hair and glasses that seemed to obscure the color of his eyes.

"No thanks," Andy said, smiling disarmingly, despite how they must have looked like they'd come off the streets, which was basically true. "We've already paid."

The boy hummed, making a note in his notepad before moving away, though Andy's eyes followed him.

"You're staring," Reyna mentioned.

Andy's eyes narrowed further so she was practically squinting. "I'm sure I've seen that guy somewhere before…"

"When he gave us our food?" Jason offered helpfully.

" _Before_ that," Andy replied shortly, waving an arm for good measure, still looking towards the boy who was now leaning against the counter, raising a hand to shift his glasses down, looking in her direction with a smirk. And Andy couldn't help but draw up short at the sight of flames where his eyes should have been.

"We should probably go," she said as the boy made a show of cleaning off a table that she didn't believe for a second. "This place'll be crawling with monsters soon."

"Probably," Jason groaned, standing with Reyna. "How far are we now?"

"Aeton can get us there in a few seconds."

They'd barely made it to the door when Andy chanced a glance back to the boy and he gave a small wave with two fingers.

* * *

Reyna leaned over the cliff-face, looking down on the calm sea. Aeton had dropped them off before flopping down on the grass, his tongue rolling out of his mouth as he panted ("He'll be fine," Andy said, unconcerned, "shadow-traveling from California to Greece took more out of him."). The first thing she'd noticed was that they were very high up.

"Couldn't we have been dropped off a bit closer to the sea-level?" she asked while Andy shrugged off her jacket –why she was wearing it in the heat, Reyna would never know–, tucking it into the bag clipped to her side.

"What's the matter, Ramírez-Arellano, scared of heights?" Andy grinned widely and Reyna gave her a venomous glower.

"Don't _call_ me that," she grated.

Andy held up her hands in surrender, but her grin didn't leave her lips. "I'm going to scout around first," she said to the pair of them. "That'll be easier, since you two can't breathe underwater. I'll come back up when I find it."

"And if you don't?" Jason probed.

Andy ignored him, taking a running leap off the cliff, diving headfirst downwards and disappearing a moment later.

Reyna had a bad feeling about this…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep an eye on that boy from the café, you haven't seen the last of him.
> 
> The relationship between Sirius and Andy or even the Jacksons is rather awkward, mostly because they haven't spent a lot of time together. Of course, Andy's gotten him a trial and Sally's looked after Harry for the most part, so they've got that going for them, but he doesn't know them very well. I'll delve into their relationships a bit more later.


	9. Bow of Andromeda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It sounds like you all are enjoying book three, which is what I hope for, because book three is easily going to be the longest book in the series.
> 
> If you're following my tumblr (greygryffindor) you've probably been given some possibilities about what's to come ;)
> 
> There's a lot of curiosity regarding that waiter at the café, and I promise you'll find out who he is soon enough, as a lot of things will be revealed this chapter and the next.

The water was warm, pleasant and welcoming around her, but it did nothing to soothe her nerves. Andy had lost count of how many times she'd dreamed about the palace of Mycenae, about its high reaching pillars, about the delicate lotus blossom carved into the wall, about the curved arches…

But that had been when Mycenae was still in its prime; now that time was long since passed.

Andy swam as deep as was possible, until the soles of her combat boots hit the sea floor, frowning at the edge of the island before her.

It appeared just to be rocks, a rather strange conglomeration of rocks that had been eaten away by the sea for so long, but Andy narrowed her eyes further, her doubt apparent.

 _And there it was!_ Like a shimmer around the collection of stones that connected the land above to the sea below. The Mist wasn't being very creative.

Andy waved a hand and the water around her rippled, the Mist abating slowly, allowing her to see beyond it.

Rock and stone had formed around what part of the palace had actually broken through the earth when it sank so many millennia ago to rest within the sea.

This had to be the deepest part of the palace before its destruction, the dungeons that were reserved for traitors and prisoners of war.

Andy swam closer, breathing in water and breathing out bubbles as she investigated the structure. There was a carved gaping hole onto which slender poles had been run through in order to deter escapees, though at the time, the only place they could have possibly gone was over the cliff.

She reached out to grasp one of the poles only to pull back quickly, her hand stinging where it had been cut by the metal. But it only took a few seconds for the cut to heal and for Andy to decide there was probably a better way to get inside.

Andy almost pulled out her wand and used an exploding hex to make a hole in the wall, but after considering the palace's precarious position, she figured she'd be better off if she just tried to make a hole with her sword.

Cal – _Evaine_ would have done that better, came the bitter thought which Andy was quick to brush aside in favor of pulling Harpe from her wrist and running the sword through the stone.

It slid through without too much difficulty, much to Andy's surprise, but the integrity of the stone must have been altered since the palace was first built, since it first fell into the sea. Still, it was a bit of a trial to drag the Celestial Bronze blade through the stone in a circular motion, but once she had, Andy grabbed a nearby rock formation, drawing her legs back in order to swing her heels forward and knock a hole through the wall.

"That wasn't so hard." Andy's words came out as bubbles as she pulled herself through the hole carefully.

The stone floor was for the most part preserved, despite being completely flooded with water and the door had eroded enough that Andy could push it aside with little difficulty, hardly noticing the skeleton in Greek armor hunched in a corner. Andy took to the long corridor, swimming past several similar rooms in the dungeon before flowing up the winding staircase.

It was a very long staircase.

_Perses took the steps one at a time, his legs too short to do more than one, one hand clinging to his mother's tightly._

" _Mother, is it always so dark down here?" His brown eyes were wide and Andromeda laughed._

Andy breathed out sharply before her head broke through the surface of the water to breathe fresh air. She stepped out of the water completely dry. The air was stale and difficult to breathe so Andy stepped back into the water to breathe easier.

Bubble-head charms were one of the few spells that the demigod children with magic learned early on (the number of wand-spells that were actually helpful in a fight against monsters was surprisingly low), especially since there'd been a time a few decades back where several demigods had died due to drowning.

She pulled her wand free and pointed it towards her face.

" _Bulla ventilo_ ," she incanted, a light blue mist producing from the wand tip, forming around her face, covering her mouth and nose with a bubble in order to allow her to breathe a bit more properly.

Then she stepped out of the water once more, standing on the topmost step of the staircase that had led downwards, breathing in the magically manufactured air within her bubble.

It was dizzying, being there now, like the change in elevation had given her motion sickness. If she'd been looking she would have seen the faintest shimmer of a ghost trying hard not to be seen. If she'd been looking she would have seen the eyes of pure flame.

But all Andy could feel in that moment was inexplicably overwhelmed.

This was the place she'd been dreaming about for so long. This was the place that Perseus had told her so many stories of, of the memories she couldn't recall.

This was the place that Nox Bacchry was trying so hard to get into.

Andy's lips thinned into a line.

Like _hell_ that was going to happen.

* * *

The magical mask over Reyna's face made her feel a bit ridiculous, a fact she had been quick to point out to Andy when she'd resurfaced.

But the palace was truly something else, and when Reyna pulled herself out of the water into the pocket of air, she couldn't help but gape in awe. It had been so beautifully preserved…well, for the most part. She wasn't entirely certain that the floor was stable and some pillars had fallen or remained with half still connected to the ceiling of the throne room, which was the first room they'd come out into.

The two thrones were broken. Only the king's still remained standing.

"So, where's this bow of yours?" she asked, but Andy wasn't listening, her eyes were entirely focused on the king's chair.

"Andy—?" Her name was barely out of Jason's mouth when she'd stepped swiftly to circle the throne to fix her eyes on something that neither of them had seen.

"Really, Perseus, this is a bit much," Andy said dryly, crossing her arms, and Jason and Reyna followed quickly afterwards.

He was for the most part transparent, but it was easy to make out his golden curls and his blue eyes.

The man cocked an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you mean."

Andy scowled and he deflated. "Did you really think it was so simple to cast me away, Andromeda?"

Andy hated when he used her name like that.

"I'm the reincarnation of your wife, not you," Andy grated and Reyna and Jason thought it was wise to keep their mouths shut.

"No, but unfortunately it's me that you're the most like."

"I find that hard to believe!"

"They're like an old married couple," Reyna muttered to Jason and he snorted.

"You have _no_ idea," he snorted.

"I don't want to start a fight—" Perseus said, but Andy cut across him.

"No, just lock me up in a tower…I mean, if you still _had_ a body," Andy retorted unimpressed.

Jason watched as anger flashed in Perseus' eyes –what little he could see of them– and he couldn't help but think he looked like he had a mean temper.

Andy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Forget about it. I've got a tomb to break into."

"Is this the same tomb that you don't want our help with getting into?" Reyna couldn't help but ask.

That had been a rather new development and Reyna wasn't entirely happy about the whole thing, mostly because it seemed like she'd just used them like monster shields, which, of course, wasn't true, because Andy had done most of the fending off of monsters.

"Trust me, this isn't a tomb you want to break into," Andy said cryptically before waving a hand through Perseus, dispersing the spirit when he came too close to living flesh, before making her way off in the direction that Jason could only assume led to the tomb she spoke of.

Reyna couldn't help but be annoyed, but her protests died in her throat.

* * *

Andy came to a stop in front of the lotus blossom carved into the wall, the very same one that she'd seen in her dream.

She reached a hand out press on the flower, sinking it back into the wall which swung open easily.

The first trap would be a volley of arrows, that much Andy remembered quite well from her dream, though this time she didn't have the luxury of being bodiless.

She pulled a small flashlight from her bag to shine the light around the corner that she was avoiding coming around for fear of being shot.

Then Andy peeked her head around and almost got an arrow through her head for her trouble.

"I will admit you're more stubborn than I give you credit."

Andy yelped at the sudden voice, jolting from her spot hidden around the corner from the arrow trap, staring at the woman half-bathed in darkness. She'd know that face anywhere, if only from her dreams.

Andromeda daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia was much slighter in build than Andy, her dark hair tumbling down her back, dark eyes watching Andy with veiled interest.

Andy had never been visited by her previous incarnation, and she'd always thought there was a very good reason for that.

"You remind me of my husband," Andromeda continued with a grim note in her voice.

Andy considered the woman. "Is that bad?"

"Depends on his mood." Andromeda crossed her arms, her expression remarkably cool. "The husband can be reasonable, the king is unyielding."

Andy's brow furrowed slightly.

"He tried to stop you from coming here, didn't he?" Andromeda inquired and Andy arched an eyebrow.

"Not really," Andy said, "but he was very cryptic about whether or not what I was looking for was the same thing Nox Bacchry was."

It was clear that the name was unfamiliar to Andromeda, but Andy hadn't expected it to be; it seemed like her spirit was tethered to her tomb and she doubted the Greek queen had left since her body was laid to rest within.

"Seeking power is always a dangerous thing," Andromeda said instead and Andy frowned. "That bow of mine is powerful, is it not? And you seek it, do you not?"

"To keep it out of the hands of a terrible man," Andy pointed out.

"There is a very thin line between what is should be done and what we wish," Andromeda said ominously and Andy couldn't help but compare her to Asteria; they were both annoyingly cryptic.

"Okay, Captain Morality," Andy rolled her eyes, "that's _very_ helpful."

She peered around the corner once more, flashing the light to see the origin of the arrows. There were small holes in the walls where arrows were shot from.

"They had crossbows back then?" she couldn't help but mutter in surprise. She'd always associated the weapon with Rome, though not very many people in New Rome used the weapon.

"An earlier version than what you're used to, I'm sure," Andromeda said dryly, "enchanted by a sorceress. Those arrows will not cease."

Annoyance flashed across Andy's face at that. "Your son must have been a _menace_ when he was alive."

True pride lightened Andromeda's face. "He always did have a fondness for puzzles," she mused and Andy took one last look at the positions of the arrow holes before breathing in deeply and lurching beyond the corner.

The arrows darted out instantly and Andy had to switch between skidding across the floor on her back to hustling along the wall, because going head on was a death sentence, as evidenced by the skeleton at the center, riddled with arrows, long dead by now.

Her shoulder was stinging when she reached the end of the long hallway and when she looked down, it was to see an arrow through her right shoulder, jarring with every breath she took.

"Well," she grumbled to herself, "it was a bad day anyways."

She looked back but Andromeda had gone, but Andy had other things to worry about than the ghost of her previous incarnation. She grimaced as she took out the knife that had once been Andromeda's, because there was no way that she was going to be able to snap the arrow's shaft with its current location; this was the next best thing.

Andy grimaced when the shaft finally snapped and she could reach around with difficulty to pull it out gingerly.

Oh, she was regretting her life choices right about now.

Maybe she should have let Reyna and Jason come along…though, it was likely that only Reyna would have been small enough not to ended up as a target; Jason wasn't much larger than her, but Andy had always been a bit on the small side.

If Andy had been focusing a bit more, she would have looked for a water bottle in her bag clipped to her belt-loops to dump on her shoulder, but, as it was, her head was spinning, something that only had half to do with her injury.

" _I don't want to marry you," little Andromeda was horrified and disgusted, "you're my uncle!"_

_A harsh slap to her cheek sent her reeling back._

Andy's head jerked, feeling the slap, despite knowing full well that it hadn't been her that had felt it. She thumbed a bandage roll out of her bag, winding it around the wound and pulling it tight with her teeth, releasing a groan as she did so and pulling herself up into a standing position via the wall.

She was so close to the massive door behind which the tomb of Andromeda lied that butterflies exploded in her stomach. But unease clouded her thoughts.

So many people had tried to deter her from coming back. Asteria had worried how the palace would affect her, while her father and Perseus had worried for her herself.

Coming to Greece was above forbidden anyways, but she hadn't been able to get that dream out of her head, of Nox Bacchry in her tomb, his face shifting from the one Andy had grown so painfully familiar with to one that she could barely remembered.

But before she could contemplate that further, the floor gave out suddenly from underneath her and Andy yelped, scrambling to grab the edge. She didn't chance a glance below her, too focused on keeping her grip tight on the edge, but she could feel the heat of the fire.

"This is just perfect," Andy muttered between grunts as she pulled herself up over the side.

Andromeda must have been proud of her son's ruthlessness in protecting her remains, but Andy just found it inconveniencing.

She breathed in and out deeply into the bubble still fixed over her mouth and nose, her head aching; she was so close now.

Andy brushed her hands off against her thighs, stepping cautiously forward until she was standing before the door.

In her dream Nox Bacchry had been within and Andy couldn't help but be taken over with a fearful unease.

Her fingers brushed along one of the charms on her leather strap around her wrist, not even coming close to completely covering the scars that the shackles had left behind when she was seven, the trident springing to her hand.

Andy breathed out sharply to raise a foot to kick the massive door open and dart inside, her trident at the ready, only to freeze when she realized that the tomb was empty of anything living.

The pain in her head intensified as she stepped into the room, and she barely had a chance to look around before everything spun and her knees hit the ground, with the rest of her body following suit.

* * *

"I don't like this."

Reyna paced, unable to stay still, her eyes flitting from the suspicious ceiling, to the hallway Andy had disappeared down, to the watery passageway they had taken to get to the throne room.

"Waiting?" Jason arched an eyebrow from where he had taken up residence against the wall, far away from the crumbling thrones.

"We should've gone with her," Reyna pressed.

"It's probably booby-trapped," Jason frowned. Andy had been oddly firm on going in alone.

"That doesn't make me feel better."

Jason snorted. "I know she's a bit hard to understand, but Andy knows what she's doing… _mostly."_

Reyna's lips twisted, drawing downwards. "You guys must've been friends a long time."

And that actually made Jason laugh. "Not even close," he chuckled. "We hated each other for years; we only got close this year when we both fell into Tartarus."

That surprised Reyna. With how they were together, like siblings in arms, she would have thought that they'd been friends for longer. _"Really?"_ she asked dubiously.

Jason shrugged his shoulders, looking rather amused. "Well, fighting for your life with only one other demigod with you in a land of monsters doesn't give you much of a choice."

"Do you think Bacchry is in that tomb waiting for her?"

At last Reyna's worries had surfaced. She hardly knew anything at all about Andy's past, and she got the feeling that Andy liked it better that way, but the mix of anger and fear in her eyes at the very mention of the man told Reyna more than enough.

A muscle jumped in Jason's jaw. "More likely he's waiting for her to come out with the bow…if that's what he really wants."

Reyna arched an eyebrow. "You don't think it is?"

"I think he's—"

But what he thought Reyna never found out, because they were both distracted by the sudden appearance of someone streaking across the throne room to where they were.

Reyna reached for her spear, but it was forced aside, a foot coming down painfully and heavily on her leg. She felt it snap under the pressure and she yelled in pain, dropping to the ground as Jason was thrown against the wall he'd been previously leaning against, causing cracks to form where he'd collided.

* * *

_Andromeda was thirteen when she had a kiss forced on her. It was sickening and stale and Andromeda had resisted throwing up on the one who'd kissed her, her uncle and betrothed, Phineas._

_Her only solace was riding her horse off to the edge of the sea where Perseus lived, fishing with his father Dictys._

" _I wish I could slay him just so you wouldn't be so sad," Perseus said, his eyes soft and his curls golden in the sunlight. He was so beautiful that it was a curse that Andromeda loved someone she could never have._

_He cradled her cheek gently before using a spare cloth to wipe away her tears on the opposite cheek._

" _I wish you could as well," Andromeda said, her words choked, "I wish I could run him through with one of my arrows."_

_But he was her uncle and her betrothed and her father would never approve of her killing his successor._

" _I don't like the way he looks at you," Perseus confided, "like you're something he needs to control, like you're an object that belongs to him."_

_Andromeda didn't like it either, but she couldn't change that._

* * *

Andy's eyes flared open and she sat up so suddenly that she nearly whacked her head on the side of the tomb, something she was sure would've caused a bit of a bruise.

The aching in her head hadn't really eased all that much, but she suspected that that might have something to do with being in Mycenae itself; it would probably abate when she left.

"Phineas," she murmured to herself.

Could it really be that simple?

But she'd seen his face, she'd seen it on Bacchry's in that dream of hers. Could they really be one in the same? Reincarnations weren't all that uncommon, though ones from ancient times had usually already reincarnated their three times. It was rare for souls as old as Andy's or Nico's to stay so long in the Underworld before rebirth; it was something that had always garnered Pluto's curiosity.

Still, most reincarnations weren't really aware of others in a similar situation, and Andy found it very hard to believe that Phineas' reincarnation just happened upon the reincarnation of the woman he was supposed to marry.

It was too coincidental.

Andy pulled herself upright, only swaying slightly on her feet as she looked on the stone casket that Queen Andromeda had no doubt sealed within following her demise. The carving along the side was intricate and—

" _Beautiful_ ," she murmured, tracing her fingers over curving designs. It was like curling waves…like the sea that had surrounded that stone that Andromeda had been famous for being tied to. The craftsmanship was without compare, truly.

It was almost a shame that she had to open it.

Andy braced herself against the side of the casket, groaning with the effort, but she couldn't lift it.

"Magic, it is," Andy muttered to herself, pulling her wand out of the arm holster that she'd tucked her dagger into previously.

" _Wingardium Leviosa,"_ she murmured to herself, tapping the top of the casket, and for a moment nothing happened, but then there was the a grating sound echoed in her ears and the lid of the casket slowly lifted up into the air, and Andy gently moved it off to the side, setting it down gently in order to look back within the casket.

The casket hadn't stopped the queen's body from decomposing, but it had been more than a millennia. All that was left of her was her bones, the arms crossed over the ribs, a tarnished metallic laurel resting on the skull and a carved bow resting in the fleshless fingers of one hand, the quiver of arrows in the other.

Of what littler remained within –most of which Andy was certain had been worn away by age– the bow and arrows were the best preserved.

"Sorry about this," Andy told the bones as she reached do carefully remove the bow from the skeleton's grip without breaking anything, but it was delicate work.

The bow was smooth in her hands and warm, like it could generate its own heat (somehow, she got the feeling that that was Apollo's enchantment). She blew off the dust that had accumulated over the ages and the bow practically vibrated in her hands.

It was as though it was _alive._

"You're running out of time." Andromeda suddenly appeared at her side, her eyes serious, making Andy jump violently. "Tread carefully, Andromeda the Wolf, that bow isn't the thing he seeks."

Andy's brow furrowed briefly and then a horrified realization dawned on her.

She had to get back to her friends.

* * *

"I see her type hasn't improved."

"Go to hell," Jason seethed. His coin had skittered across the floor, too far to reach and he could feel the trickle of blood down the side of his face from the cut on his head, the whole side aching. Reyna was still on the ground, her face white and tight with pain, still clutching her leg.

"Yes, I heard the pair of you had gone down," the man hummed in amusement, keeping the dagger to Jason's throat, deterring any movement.

"Nox Bacchry! Let him _go!"_

Three pairs of eyes fixed on the figure that rushed out of the corridor, an arrow nocked in the bow in her hands, the drawstring pulled tight, ready to fire.

Nox Bacchry's wine-colored eyes positively gleamed and Reyna could have sworn that his whole face light up at the sight of the nearly-thirteen-year-old demigod.

"Omega," he breathed.

"Don't keep up airs for me, traitor," Andy sneered. "I remember your face, I _know_ your name, Phineas, son of Agenor."

There was a manic glint in his eye. "Ah, little Andromeda, remembering things are you? Dangerous things memories…look at what they did to me."

Andy was momentarily thrown, but her expression cooled quickly. "It was never the bow you wanted, you just needed me to get me away from everyone else…"

"Such a quick study, _my dear_ ," he purred and Jason held back a shiver at the endearment. "You always were so fast at figuring me out."

That had double meaning, Jason just knew it, because the blood had drained entirely from his cousin's face.

"What bow could compare to the prize of you, Andromeda of Aethiopia?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the secret's out. Nox is Phineas aka Andromeda's ex-fiancé, no wonder he doesn't like Jason. The truth will be revealed in the next chapter and we'll find out what's really been going on.
> 
> Perses was a vindictive king, wasn't he? He really didn't want anyone to get into his mum's tomb.


	10. Truth Behind the Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last we are here, the moment where everything is revealed, well, most of its revealed.
> 
> Phineas was a bit of a surprise, yeah? I think only one person guessed that he was Nox. But I promise there's more shocking turn of events to come.

Andy could recall an exact moment when fear like the kind she was currently feeling was coursing through her veins in the stead of blood. The last time she had crossed paths with Nox Bacchry, he had been handcuffed to the table of the interrogation room, but he hadn't inspired as much fear then; the last time he'd done so Andy had been seven, throat raw and back burning.

It took enormous strain to keep her hands from shaking where she held the bow in her hands, not even loosening her fingers on the drawstring.

"Reyna, you all right?" she asked, not even glancing to where the daughter of Bellona's crumpled form lay, still clutching her leg in pain.

"I'll manage," Reyna groaned.

"Jason?"

Jason wasn't suffering from any broken bones, but being in such close proximity to Nox Bacchry was enough to make anyone wish for the pain of broken bones, Andy would know.

"Fine," he grunted.

"I should've known you'd be with another son of the sky god," Bacchry nearly purred and Jason could see how she gritted her teeth together behind her lips.

Andy breathed out sharply, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. "I liked you better when you were turned to stone," she said bitterly, and she meant that sincerely.

"I liked you better when you couldn't fight back."

She felt like ice had trickled down her spine and Reyna shot a horrified look towards Andy while Jason's lips curled in disgust.

Andy's tongue felt swollen in her mouth as she tried to come up with a proper comeback, but every time she met those wine-colored eyes, she remembered being strapped down in that darkened room, screaming like white-hot pokers were running through her skin, like being boiling in oil, all in one go and multiplied by one hundred.

"You _knew_ ," she finally said, "about who I was before…someone had to have told you. Reincarnation ensures that you don't know anyone from your previous life, if they happen to be reincarnated around the same time."

She hadn't even known Nico was Perseus' reincarnation until long after they'd become friends, so how had he _known?_

"A little birdie told me a story." Bacchry's lips curled and it was disturbingly similar to the way he'd looked when he'd broken the bones in her arms and legs and left her in a pile of agony for three hours, every move jarringly painful. "Showed me the truth. Told me where to find you…what to do to you to _break_ you…"

Andy's stomach roiled and she resisted puking right then and there, but it was a very near thing. What kind of _person_ would freely give that kind of information?

"I suppose it was more that I was hitting two birds with one stone," Bacchry mused and Andy almost didn't want to hear anymore. "Getting you and breaking you all at once…making sure that he wouldn't want someone like you…a _monster."_

She was shaking and Jason didn't think he'd ever seen her like that. She'd always repressed everything about those nights from so long ago and the details she'd given him in Tartarus were always the bare minimum, like she didn't want to think about it for longer than was necessary.

But now she looked dangerously close to breaking down; the effect that Bacchry had on her was startling.

"Takes one to know one," Andy spat through gritted teeth but her voice still shook. "You did all that…to make me _undesirable_ to Perseus? Are you _fucking_ kidding me?"

Her fear was replaced by rage and Reyna eyed the submerged staircase that they had swam up out of nervously, taking note of how the water roiled and churned in response to Andy's emotions.

"I was _seven years old!"_ Before Andy knew it, she was screaming. "I didn't _care_ or even _know_ about him!"

"You were _mine!"_

" _I'm no one's!"_ The floor shook from the turbulent sea below and Andy's shattered eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm a _person_ not a _thing!_ But that must have escaped your awareness, you _pathetic little insignificant man!"_

"How _dare_ you speak to me like that!" Bacchry snarled.

"Oh, what're you going to do?" Andy mocked. "Slap me like you slapped her? Maybe carve a few more scars into me?"

Reyna grimaced at the biting hisses leaving Andy's lips. She'd hate to make her angry.

"Who told you?" she demanded. "It couldn't have been anyone less than a god, no one else would know anything about me being Andromeda's reincarnation, not back then. Was it Saturn?"

He certainly would've had a lot to gain if Andromeda's reincarnation was broken, then she and Perseus' wouldn't be nearly as much of a threat to his attempt to regain power.

"I won't deny he gained a lot from me," Bacchry smirked and the knife at Jason's throat dug a little deeper making him flinch. Andy noticed and Jason made a motion with his hand.

_I'm fine._

"However, you should thank Delos –or should I say… _Asteria?"_

Andy's blood went cold in her veins, like it had been replaced with ice. There was no way what he was saying was _true_ , there was _no way_ that Asteria would have done that! Andy trusted Asteria more than even her own father, Asteria was the one that had explained everything to her after she'd been returned to Camp Jupiter…she was the one that had known _everything…_

"You're _lying!"_ she hissed. "Asteria would never— she's not like you! She wouldn't do something like that!"

Bacchry quirked an amused eyebrow. "And just how well do you think you know the titan of dark prophecy, daughter of Neptune?"

" _I realize that you trust my mother very much, that she's helped you, but I need you to understand that Asteria is not a good person," Calliope Evans said solemnly, twisting a silver bracelet around her wrist, tightening her grip on her spear. "She does anything to achieve her ends, and that you're a part of one of her prophecies…I don't think it'll end well for you."_

Calliope had warned her, she had warned her several times before her death… _gods,_ Asteria hadn't done that too, had she?

"She has many demigods to do her bidding…you didn't think it was a coincidence that you were outside the boundaries of New Rome, did you?" Bacchry chuckled darkly. "I thought you were cleverer than that, Andromeda."

Andy was mouthing wordlessly, incomprehension clear on her face and Jason saw a tear trickle down her cheek, unable to be held at bay by her eyelashes. He couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through her mind right now, being in Bacchry's presence was bad enough, but being told that the titan you trusted had orchestrated your torture was something else entirely.

"Michael Ferin was only so happy to comply."

Andy went positively white at the mention of the son of Timor, the former Praetor who had traumatized her with reliving the horrors that Bacchry had inflicted upon her mere days after her fragile mind had been pieced back together.

Jason looked up at the sound of something cracking, something that Bacchry wouldn't have been able to hear over his own ego. Cracks had appeared in the ceiling, spreading along the wall, sprinkling water along the breaks.

"Oh, if only you _knew,"_ Bacchry said with so much relish, not even noticing the cracks deepening. His eyes shifted from Andy to Reyna, but he could barely see Reyna, just enough to see her impossibly wide eyes, "just how much—"

But then a large piece of stone broke off directly above them, and Bacchry was distracted enough that Jason could raise an arm to jerk the knife at his throat down, diving forward to avoid the stone.

Andy side-stepped, positioning herself in front of him when he skidded, falling to his knees, snatching up his coin on his way down, but there was no need.

Bacchry hadn't been fast enough, his reflexes had betrayed him, and when the dust had cleared, there was a smear of red and an unmoving form beneath the stone.

Andy was sure she had frozen, taking a brief moment to comprehend what had just happened. After almost six years of walking wounded, the man who had dominated her darkest nightmares was dead, and the only thing she could think of was how he didn't deserve a death so quick.

But she had no time to comprehend that, the palace around them had begun to shake.

"We're sinking!" Jason yelled and Andy shoved the bow and arrows into the bag at her waist before racing forward to hook Reyna's arm, dragging her towards the watery staircase with Jason following quickly behind, both ignoring their companion's yells of agony as they dove down.

If they didn't move fast enough, their entry would be blocked and Andy didn't like the idea of having the sinking palace bearing down on them.

Jason went through the hole first and then Andy sent Reyna through before following quickly, just missing being caught by a piece of falling stone that blocked the entrance after her.

She grabbed Reyna's waist with one hand and Jason's arm with the other, focusing hard enough to send them quickly to the surface.

They shot onto the beach, the bubble-head charms breaking and Reyna screamed on impact, white in pain as she clutched her leg.

"Let's never do anything like this _again,"_ Jason gasped and both girls nodded furiously.

"We need to get her somewhere and get her leg looked at," Andy said, breathless as she crawled to Reyna's side.

"What about you?" Jason asked.

"What about me?" Andy asked blankly.

Jason gave her a bland stare, opening his mouth to say something when Reyna yelled: _"Look out!"_

Two shots rang out and then there was silence.

* * *

Percy had never been to the Wizarding hospital in California, Mercy's Hospital of Magical Maladies and Injuries, but Carmella knew what to do, racing up to the main desk with Aeton lagging at her heels.

The call he'd gotten on Andy's phone from an unknown number that had turned out to be his sister had been almost indecipherable apart from _"Get to the fucking hospital!"_

"My sister Andy Jackson-Black, where's her room?" Carmella demanded of the witch at the main desk and the woman barely blinked, consulting her list.

"Jackson-Black," she hummed, frowning, "room 72A."

" _Thank you_ ," Carmella gasped breathlessly before yanking Percy by the arm in the direction of the elevator.

"Gods, I should've gone with her," she muttered furiously to herself. "Why did I _stay?_ But Jason –she and Jason should have been _fine!"_

Percy could offer her nothing. "I should've gone with her too," he said, his heart practically vibrating in his chest, "but you know how she gets."

"Stubborn," Carmella gave a wet laugh as the elevator dinged when it reached their level and then the pair lurched out of the elevator.

70A…

71A …

They reached 72A and threw open the door.

Blood was soaked through the knees of Andy's pants and coated her hands, trickling slowly down from a penetrating wound on her shoulder as she sat perched on a stool while a young man in scrubs mopped the injury with some gauze, twisting some medical tweezers into the wound while she winced, gritting her teeth.

"Andy?" Percy uttered weakly. "You all right?"

"I'm having a really shit day," Andy snarled.

" _Shit,"_ the brown-haired man muttered a complaint. "Sorry Andy, the bullet's slippery."

"Don't worry, Andrew, I've got a shockingly high pain tolerance," Andy remarked through gritted teeth.

"How are you doing, Reyna?" Andrew called towards the girl on the cot in the room that neither Jackson had noticed, and Percy couldn't help but think there was something oddly familiar about her glossy black hair bound in a tight plait as she lay slumped against the cot, eyes shut, giving a vague jerk of the head when he'd called to her.

"You doped her up on a pain potion, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't notice dragon if it blew fire on her," Andy remarked dryly.

"Anyone want to tell me what's going on?" Carmella demanded.

"I'm guessing it was the ice queen here's idea to use that water teleportation technique of hers—" Andrew started to explain before Andy interrupted him.

"Hydroportation," she muttered, but he ignored her.

"She shows up on the main level with sleeping beauty over there and Jason Grace, covered in his blood and yelling for help." Carmella's hand leapt to her mouth in horror. "They took Jason away, no word on how he's doing."

"Jason? _What?"_ Carmella said weakly. "What _happened?"_

"We got out of Mycenae before more of it sank into the sea," Andy bit out, "we were on the beach and then Michael Ferin happened."

"What're you _talking_ about?" Percy had no idea what was going on, and Carmella mirrored him in that respect. "That detective that came to the apartment?"

"He's a lying _traitor_ , that's what he is," Andy positively seethed. "I know he was behind Bacchry getting me when I was seven, he practically admit – _ow!"_ She shouted when the tweezers twisted painfully inside her.

"Sorry," Andrew apologized as he withdrew a small warped bullet, dropping it into the metallic dish at his side before pulling out his wand, a spell knitting her skin together so all that remained was a shiny scar that would fade with time. He wiped away the last of the blood before throwing away his gloves and away and sanitizing his hands before touching her again, per protocol.

"All right, your shoulder's going to be sore for the next hour or so, so you're going to have to wear a sling," he said.

"Oh, just give it to me," Andy snapped, and he did, fitting her arm within it.

"And you need to made a call to Matthew," Andrew added. "Two senators and one _probatio_ in the hospital because of a former Praetor is very serious."

Percy and Carmella watched with interest as Andy positively wilted under his stare as Aeton approached her stool, nosing her knee as he did so, where blood still coated the denim, a whine low in his throat..

"Fine, I'll tell Praetor," she grumbled under her breath, patting her familiar on his head, before he stood making his way over to Reyna.

"Reyna, can you hear me?" he asked loudly and the girl gave a faint mumble.

"She's not going to notice," Andy pointed out.

"Trust me, she's going to notice when I re-align the bones in her leg and knit them back together."

He pressed down at Reyna's waist before giving a sharp flick of his wand. There was a sudden crack and Reyna's eyes flared open and she gave a sudden yell of pain.

Carmella grimaced at the sound.

"Stay here," Andrew advised. "I need to call your mother, Andy."

Andy chewed on the inside on her cheek. "Mum's going to kill me," she mumbled, raking a hand through her hair, but that was nothing compared to look that Percy was throwing her way.

* * *

Sirius was very tired, but he was jerked awake suddenly by the sound of his cell door being creaked open. He blinked his eyes open, staring blearily at the man in Auror robes.

"Get up," the Auror said and Sirius heaved himself into a standing position.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Your trial's been moved up," the Auror said, fixing shackles over Sirius' wrists and Sirius couldn't help but think that that wasn't exactly a good thing.

* * *

"You didn't tell me _a single thing_!"

"I didn't want to make things difficult. It's hard enough to wrap your mind around the idea of Carmella and me being witches, let alone that we're _Roman_ not Greek."

The siblings were struggling to keep their voices low as Reyna slept off the last of her pain potion.

Percy rubbed his hand across his forehead.

"Where's Harry?" Andy asked Carmella.

"He was practicing swordsmanship with Ron last I saw him," Carmella answered, "the Weasleys are keeping an eye on him…what happened in Mycenae, Andy? Both you and Jason were shot!"

Andy rubbed a hand over her mouth. "Everything was fine, at first," she admitted, sitting down heavily on the stool, running her fingers over the encircling scars that had come from shackles rubbing her skin raw so long ago. "We went to the Library of Congress first and Father showed up…he was worried about what I'd find there."

Percy tried to imagine Poseidon with his fishing hat as the type to be cryptic, but his Roman aspect must have been very different to his Greek.

"And then Jason had a dream about Perseus that was pretty much the same thing," Andy grumbled, "but I was _so_ sure it was the bow." She pressed her fist to her mouth, her eyes fluttering closed. Her eyelashes were wet.

"We could handle the monsters," she added, her words raw in her throat, "there were a lot of them, but it was Greece, you know, it's crawling with them."

Andy wiped at her eyes, glancing towards Reyna.

"Part of the palace was underwater and part of it was under the earth, since it sank through centuries ago," Andy tried to maintain a level tone. "We went up from the dungeons in the sea to the main level. There was an air pocket but we used bubble-head charms anyways because none of us could barely breath…I left Jason and Reyna and went to the tomb myself."

"The tomb you were sure was booby trapped?" Carmella arched an eyebrow.

Andy shrugged. "I did get shot with an arrow, but I got to the tomb, and I found the bow and her quiver and when I –when I came back—"

Her voice shook and she swallowed thickly trying to regain the use of her voice and Carmella and Percy shared a glance, not quite sure what to do.

"Bacchry," she rasped, "he'd broken Reyna's leg and he had a knife to Jason's throat." Andy brought up a hand to her own throat, remembering the bead of blood that had formed on her cousin's neck when the sharp side of the dagger had been pressed to tight to his flesh. "He wasn't even there for the bow—"

"He was there for you," Percy uttered in horrified realization and Andy nodded, burying her face in her hands, looking so dangerously close to a breakdown that her words failed her entirely.

* * *

Andy sat with her head hidden under the arm not tucked into a sling, muttering intelligibly to herself, her lips forming the words that Bacchry had said, the words echoing in her mind.

" _I liked you better when you couldn't fight back."_

" _A little birdie told me a story. Showed me the truth. Told me where to find you…what to do to you to break you…"_

" _I suppose it was more that I was hitting two birds with one stone. Getting you and breaking you all at once…making sure that he wouldn't want someone like you…a_ monster."

Andy wished she didn't have to hear his voice in her head, the nightmares were bad enough, but she couldn't shake the words, not even a little bit.

" _You were mine!"_

" _You should thank Delos –or should I say…Asteria?"_

_Just how well do you think you know the titan of dark prophecy, daughter of Neptune?"_

" _She has many demigods to do her bidding…you didn't think it was a coincidence that you were outside the boundaries of New Rome, did you?"_

How could it be true? How could Asteria have done this? It was too awful for words.

* * *

"How is she?"

Andrew consulted Andy's charts while Sally stood before him, tension lining her spine.

"She's a little battered, but she'll heal fine," Andrew sighed, tapping his pen against the chart. "Psychologically? I've got no idea."

Sally started in surprise.

"Has your daughter ever seen a therapist?" he asked her. "After everything that happened?"

"No –I," Sally frowned deeply. "I didn't even know about that until years later."

Andrew was sympathetic, Andy, after all, had been kidnapped as a child.

"At the very least, I would suggest her see a mind healer," Andrew sighed, looking through the door that separated them from the girl in question. Andy was curled up on a cot, her arms wound around her legs, keeping her face to her knees while Carmella and Percy spoke quietly to her.

Reyna was on the opposite cot, hidden from view of the transparent door.

"He may be dead now, but I think it would help her to talk to someone, a healer, about what happened to her," Andrew added. "She shouldn't have to pull around all that pain and fear."

"Thank you," Sally said after a long and silent moment, her eyes soft and to Andrew mother and daughter couldn't have looked more alike.

"It's my job," he said, but even he knew it wasn't just that, "we should go back inside before your daughter gets too worried."

"Which one?" Sally smiled and his lips twisted into a smirk.

"The one that's capable of turning me into an ice sculpture," he said decisively before opening the door for her.

"Is Jason out of surgery yet?" was the first thing out of Andy's mouth before Andrea and her mother had completely stepped into the room and Reyna sat up to listen intently.

Mercy Hospital was a magical one, but it catered to the needs of Muggle relatives of witches and wizards so it was more integrated than most, and while 'surgeries' were not as invasive as the ones at Muggle hospitals, they still involved using several spells at once on sometimes some rather serious injuries, much like Jason's had been.

And Andrew smiled. "He just came out. He's going to be fine, might have a scar or two, but he'll live."

He didn't think he'd ever seen two girls quite so relieved.

"Can we see him?" Reyna asked, steadfast in her ability to ignore Percy's presence, still angry with him for how his and Annabeth's actions had resulted in her and Hylla's incarceration by pirates when Circe had been… _indisposed._

"In a short while," Andrew promised, "he's still critical and very low on blood. Give it a few hours then maybe you'll be allowed to go and see him."

Andy's shoulders sagged, and if anyone was looking close enough, they would have seen them shake, but her face gave nothing away.

* * *

The cell phone was still a bit wonky, the charm used to confuse monsters wasn't functioning to the best of its ability, but there was still enough magic surrounding the hospital to keep monsters confused, but Andy still jolted when it buzzed in her hand.

_From: Rachel_

_Mom says to tell you that Sirius Black's trial has been moved up to in ten minutes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The good news is that Sirius' trial will be in the next chapter, but how about that twist, huh? I bet most of you thought that Saturn was the big bad in Andy's case, but, plot twist, it's actually Asteria!
> 
> That development was rather new, but I liked it much more than my original idea, and I hope you all do too.
> 
> The Andy-Asteria confrontation is coming up.


	11. Trial of Innocence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can promise you guys that we've pretty much finished the quota for betrayals, but Asteria's was the big mastermind behind everything so I had to get to that. Andy's life will be getting better, much better.
> 
> And when they both start school, we'll be seeing some of what Nico's up to.
> 
> CBD is actually going to be split up into three parts (tentatively), and this chapter marks the end of part one. Part two and three will be much more light-hearted, in a way.

Sirius was almost blinded by the flashes that went off when he and his Auror guards –though if they were there to guard him or to keep him from others remained to be seen– left the lift, coming out on the courtroom level of the Ministry of Magic. He didn't think he'd ever seen so many photographers and reporters in one place at one time, but, he supposed grimly, his trial was rather important.

There was a flash of blue and white in the sea of dark colors and he looked up suddenly.

Andy was wearing dark blue robes and looking rather harried, favoring one arm over the other, but she gave him a slight smile and a nod towards the doors as if to say "I'll be in there."

For a brief moment he wished she'd brought his godson, but even knew it was a bad idea to have Harry in the same room as so many reporters.

And then she disappeared into the crowd, her short stature working against her and Sirius allowed himself to be dragged forward by his arms and through the double doors.

The courtroom was rather large and Sirius couldn't help but get the feeling that it was partially to intimidate him, and partially because there were just so many people attending the trial.

Sirius couldn't even hear the questions the reporters shouted over the blood pulsing in his ears. He breathed in and out deeply, trying to regulate the sound as he brought in to the chair in the center of the room, the chains springing to life to lock him in place and Sirius barely even noticed their presence as his grey eyes shifted to the persons filtering into the seats around them.

Now Andy was easy to make out with her oddly-colored hair.

The sound of a gavel hitting a block several times was enough to the sounds and Sirius looked up.

There had been a different minister when he'd first been locked away, but the one presiding over him was none other than Madam Amelia Bones, who had been a rising star in Auror Department and was now the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Sirius hadn't met her hardly at all, but he knew from rumors that she was tough but fair; it gave him a bit of hope.

"Secondary trial of the twentieth of June," Madam Bones proclaimed loudly, her voice echoing as those that were talking were quickly silenced and the scribe began to dictate, "into reassessment of offenses charged with on the first of November 1998 by Sirius Orion Black the third, of which include the murder of twelve Muggles and wizard Peter Pettigrew, and leading to the death of James and Lily Potter through passage of information to You-Know-Who."

Sirius' teeth gritted behind his lips at the very thought of causing James and Lily's deaths, but he said nothing. If there was one thing prison had taught him, it was patience.

"Interrogator: Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Court Scribe, Paulette Coleen Hughes. I understand the accused has requested that two drops of Veritaserum be administered to give validity to any of his statements."

Her eyes fixed on Sirius and he realized she was actually expecting an answer from him. "Y-Yes," his words came out as a croak, disuse making it ache.

Madam Bones nodded to a portly man off to the side who bustled forward uneasily in order to drop two drops on Sirius' tongue and ensure that he swallowed them.

"We'll start with a baseline to ensure that the potion is functioning correctly," Madam Bones said, flicking through the parchment rolls before her. "Please state your full name for the court and your closest living relative and their relation."

"Sirius Orion Black," he said, swallowing carefully, "and my step-sister's name is Andromeda Jackson-Black."

Andy had never mentioned her middle name, but he didn't think that was very important, especially in this instance.

He glanced to Andy, noticing how some of the attention had shifted towards her, but she didn't so much as blink or even acknowledge the stares; he got the feeling she was used to attention like that.

"What is your date of birth?"

"November 3, 1976," Sirius said.

"Good," Madam Bones said, "let's begin."

So Sirius forced himself to speak about the very thing he hadn't spoken of in nearly nine years.

"It was the height of the war when James and Lily found out that Voldemort—" There was a loud echoing gasp from nearly every person in the room and Sirius couldn't help but admire Madam Bones' unflinching resolve, "—when they found out Voldemort was after them. Hardly anyone even knew about that, apart from myself and Dumbledore, who'd found out from some of his spies."

Andy's brow furrowed in the stands, remembering the wizened old headmaster at Hogwarts.

"It was Dumbledore's idea for them to go into hiding, he suggested the Fidelius Charm."

"Let the court be aware that the Fidelius Charm the accused is describing is an enchantment that conceals a secret within a single living soul," Madam Bones said, interrupting him swiftly. "My apologies, Mr. Black, continue."

"James suggested me be the secret-keeper, the one holding their secret," Sirius continued, backtracking slightly in order to explain the meaning of 'secret-keeper', "I was going into hiding as well, he thought it was the perfect plan…" What little light in Sirius' eyes faded briefly. "But Dumbledore wasn't so sure, he suspected that someone close to James and Lily was passing information. I don't know if he suspected me, but I thought it might have been one of our friends, Remus Lupin…a belief I regret."

Sirius couldn't believe that he would have thought so little of Remus to believe that he was capable of something so terrible.

"I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter Pettigrew at the last moment," the words turned to ash in Sirius' mouth, "persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me, he was _wea_ k, and _talentless_ , he seemed like the obvious choice; who would suspect him?... I'm to blame, I know it..." Sirius doubted he could sound more bitter, but his actions had caused the death of his friends and led to his godson being orphaned. "The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straight away. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies..." His throat clogged with emotion. "I realized what Peter must've done... what _I'd_ done..."

His hands shook in the shackles, making the chains rattle.

"I hunted him down to Muggle street, and when I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James." Barely contained anger could be heard in his voice. "Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself –and sped down into the sewer with the other rats..."

"Other rats?" Madam Bones queried.

Sirius blinked before realizing he'd forgotten that crucial detail. "Peter was an unregistered Animagus in the form of a rat."

That caused a titter and Madam Bones arched an eyebrow above her monocle and Sirius feared for a moment she would ask him about why and then he'd be forced to make public Remus' status as a werewolf, but she didn't.

"Let the court be aware that Mr. Black's wand was entered into evidence and the _Prior Incantato_ corroborates that his wand did not produce the spell that caused the death of the twelve Muggles and Peter Pettigrew," Madam Bones said shortly. "We will have a brief recess to deliberate."

Sirius leaned back in his chair heavily as Andy made her down to reach his side. Up close, he realized she looked absolutely wretched. Her eyes were red, her curls were in disarray.

"You look terrible," he said, his throat raw from talking, and well aware of how many people were focusing on the pair of them, particularly the reporters.

Andy didn't smile. "I'm having a kind of shit day," she conceded with a sigh. "This is probably the best thing that's happened to me all day."

Her day must have been going _really_ terribly if that was true.

Sirius cleared his throat. "If I get to walk out of here," he said, "I'm going to owe you for life."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Andy waved a hand carelessly. "Technically we are family, as weird as that is. Family doesn't need to owe each other favors, besides, Regulus asked me to." She rubbed at the back of her neck, frowning slightly.

Sirius could tell that her mind was elsewhere, only half paying attention, but he didn't comment on it even when a woman with red curls called her back to the stands. Sirius couldn't remember the woman's name but he sure that they'd gone to school together…she was a Ravenclaw, he was almost certain, and had graduated a few years before him.

"One second, Lady Dare!" Andy called back before turning to look at Sirius again.

"When you get out of here, we're going to Mercy Hospital because you look terrible."

And Sirius couldn't help the rusty chuckle that escaped him at how she was already assuming he was going to be released, but Sirius had his doubts.

"And Harry'll pop by," Andy added, and it was that more than anything that caused hope to balloon in his stomach.

And then she was gone, weaving through the crowd to reach the woman that Sirius could only assume was her chaperone.

" _Order!"_ Madam Bones called as the many people settled once more. "Those in favor of Sirius Black being cleared of the charges of murdering twelve Muggles and Peter Pettigrew and passing information to You-Know-Who resulting in the deaths of James and Lily Potter?"

Sirius didn't try to count the hands that rose into the air. Most of the Wizengamot was made up of old Pure-blood families but with the evidence staring them in the face, some truths couldn't have been denied.

Lucius Malfoy was one who abstained, but Sirius wasn't surprised, he was, after all, a Death Eater, and he wasn't the only one. Sirius could see several other 'renounced' Death Eaters did as well, and one woman he wasn't familiar with, dressed in garish pink with a face like a toad.

She gave him an unpleasant feeling.

"That's the majority," Madam Bones said with a smile, "allow me to be the first to congratulate you, Mr. Black, you are officially a free man."

Sirius sagged in the chair as the shackles released him, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off him. Almost nine years…and the truth had finally come out.

The first thing he saw was Andy's wide grin before she gave him a firm hug once he'd pulled himself out of the chair.

"See?" she said. "Told you."

* * *

"What on _earth_ are you wearing?"

Jason's injuries had healed and he was getting rather sick of the blood-replenisher potion that one of the healers had forced on him, but the upside was that he'd walk out with minimal scarring.

And when Andy had entered his hospital room, he'd had to stare at her blankly for a few moments, because he didn't think he'd ever seen Andy in a dress. The only thing remotely close to a dress that he'd seen her wear was her senator-garb and she didn't spend a lot of time in that.

At least, it looked rather like a dress; deep blue with loose sleeves, falling past her knees.

When Andy saw that he was awake, she looked absolutely delighted.

"Jason!" She flung her arms around him with more feeling than he ever recalled her having. It made his chest ache, even though the wound was healed, and he groaned under her tight grip. "You're all right, then?"

"Relatively," he muttered when she finally released him. "What about you?" He glanced to her shoulder with a frown.

"Good as new," Andy said, a concept which she appeared to find rather humorous. "And Sirius is down on floor one getting looked over."

Jason had to wonder how long he'd been out, because the last he could recall, Sirius was that step-brother of hers that was in prison.

It must have showed on his face, because Andy gave him a half-smile. "He was just exonerated an hour ago."

Jason nodded and hummed before saying: "I heard Ferin got away."

And Andy's expression soured at a startling rate. "We'll get him next time," she promised, the words coming out like a growl. "Traitors can only go so far."

Jason wondered if she was thinking about Callie Evaine or Asteria herself.

"Aeton took Reyna back to camp," Andy added, "Praetor's outside waiting for an explanation, but I wanted to make sure you were all right."

Jason grinned. "Getting soft, Wolf?"

Green eyes rolled and she smirked, shoving one of his shoulders. "Oh, shut up," she said, hopping up onto the cot, her smile fading. "He's going to ask me to be praetor."

Honestly, Jason wasn't really all that surprised. Rumors had circulated through New Rome about the prospect of that very appointment. Jason didn't think so many senators had been for a praetor appointment before.

"I'm going to say yes," Andy added and he arched an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't've thought you'd like that kind of responsibility," he said, considering her.

"I'm trying something new," Andy said.

That only served to confuse Jason further as Andy rolled her shoulders, but she seemed lighter somehow, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Maybe it hadn't been the way she'd wanted it, but Nox Bacchry had ended up dead, and for the first time in a long time, she didn't have to be afraid to look over her shoulder, terrified to find him there.

"You'd look good in purple," he said instead and Andy's eyes glittered.

He didn't think he'd seen her smile quite like that.

She patted his leg. "I'm going to see Andrew about discharging you and then I'm going to speak with Matthew Jones." Andy waggled her fingers for good measure before pulling herself upright and disappearing out of the door before Jason could say anything different.

* * *

For the first time in almost nine years, Sirius was in something clean –whether or not it was a hospital gown was beside the point–, his long ratty hair cropped close to his chin and his beard trimmed. The bath, he had to admit, was the best part.

A young man wearing an odd set of clothes that might have been the type of wear the Muggle equivalent of healers would don had run some diagnostic spells over him, his frown deepening with each spell.

" _Azkaban,"_ the man grumbled under his breath, jotting notes onto the papers strapped to a clipboard, "a crime against _humanity._ No access to proper healthcare."

Sirius was faintly amused by the healer's annoyance, but they were both interrupted by the sound of a knock at the door before it opened and a woman peered inside.

She had long brown hair with a few grey streaks and blue eyes and was dressed simply, but there was something familiar in the curve of her smile and the shape of her eyes.

"Miss Jackson," the healer greeted her and Sirius considered her. This was Sally Jackson? Andy's mother? "Is your daughter looking for me?"

Sally Jackson smiled. "Yes, I think Jason's getting a bit antsy."

"He would be," the healer grumbled before turning his attention back to Sirius. "Mr. Black, I'll be back in a few minutes to explain your potion regimen so we can get you back to full health."

"Thank you," Sirius said and the man nodded, leaving the pair alone.

Sally stepped forward, extending her hand, "I'm Sally Jackson, Andy's mum."

"I figured," Sirius smiled, taking her hand. "I'm Sirius Black, her…step-brother."

Sally's smile became faintly brittle. "Magic's always been rather confusing to me, but blood-adoption, I'll admit is a bit beyond me."

Sirius scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"But you're her family in a sense, and you're Harry's godfather," Sally barreled on, "so we should get used to seeing each other."

Sirius was almost certain he was gaping at her. "You're a very understanding woman."

"Children have tempered me," Sally said dryly. "And, speaking of which, there's someone who wants to see you."

Sally opened the door, calling to someone that Sirius couldn't see, and making his heart leap into his throat. "Come on in, baby."

Almost ten and already with an unruly mop of dark hair that would've done James proud, knobby knees, and Lily's eyes, as green as the sea. Harry had a quiver on one shoulder and bow still clutched in a hand, the inside of his wrist bearing the tattoo of SPQR, a trident and an upside down torch with two slash lines.

"Hi," Harry said, fingering his bow in a nervous tick almost, "I'm Harry."

"Hey, Harry," Sirius' throat closed and he almost didn't manage to get his name out, "I'm Sirius."

And Harry smiled and despite looking so much like James, Sirius couldn't help but think he was more like his mother, despite barely knowing him at all.

"Baby," Sally cleared her throat, "wasn't there something that you wanted to give Sirius?"

Harry's eyes went round and he dug around in his pockets and pulled out a smooth arrowhead on a cord. "I made it," he said, "It wasn't sharp enough for an arrow, so I thought I'd make a necklace…but you don't have to—"

Sirius took the arrowhead necklace from his outstretched hand, looping it around his neck before Harry could even blink.

And the smile Sally wore made Sirius feel like he'd passed some kind of test.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like your dad?" Sirius asked him when Harry had turned a faint pink. "Just with your mother's eyes?"

"No," Harry said, wrinkling his brow. "Aunt Petunia never had any pictures and Aunty's only got one of Mum when she was a baby. Gran says we've all got the same eyes, though."

Sally's eyes glittered and Sirius smiled.

"Would you like to hear more about them?"

* * *

"So…Roman, huh?"

Percy looked to his sister as she sat beside him and Andy gave a helpless shrug.

"It could be worse," she conceded.

"Yeah?" Percy snorted.

"I could still be a goddess," Andy said, rolling her eyes and smirking, "now that would've been _terrible."_

The only upside to that immortality was that it had been only temporary. Artemis had once asked her to join her Hunters after she'd regained her mortality, but Andy had turned her down; she'd had enough of immortality to last her a lifetime.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you," Andy added, rubbing a hand over the inside of her arm, over the images tattooed into her skin, her fingers lingering over the trident. "But Greece and Rome have a… _complicated_ history."

She grimaced and Percy scowled.

"I'm your brother," he said, "we shouldn't have to lie to each other, none of us." His eyes flicked towards where Carmella was standing speaking Andrew's girlfriend and fellow healer, Cassie Hollins, daughter of Camenae, goddess of fresh water.

"I'm sorry," Andy repeated, before poking his side obnoxiously. "You still love me, right?"

He swatted her and Andy grinned, but it faltered.

"Mum thinks I should see someone," she confided and Percy furrowed his brow in confusion. "A therapist. Andrew thinks it's a good idea too."

"Do you want to?" Percy asked and Andy wrinkled her nose, twisting the dark silver ring around on her finger.

Her eyes drifted off and he couldn't quite make out the feeling behind them.

"I'm broken and five different types of crazy," she said finally.

"You're _not—"_

"I am," Andy said over him. "Bacchus, he put my mind back together, but the gods can't fix everything."

She could still remember Hecate's words: _"You cannot break that which is already broken."_

She sighed, shaking her head back. It was strange to think how much had changed since she, Jason, and Reyna had made their journey to Mycenae. Her tormentor was dead and Asteria had been outed.

The truth about Asteria had left Andy bitter. She'd trusted the titan for years, Asteria had been her confidante, and to find out she was the cause of her misery…well, it was difficult to follow.

Percy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You're going to be all right, aren't you?"

"Probably," Andy said, "I'm being made praetor at Camp Jupiter."

"I don't know what that means," Percy said as Carmella sat down on Andy's other side.

"It means Andy gets to be one of two people in charge of camp," Carmella said dryly, crossing her legs and Andy almost asked her what Cassie had talked with her about, but that was Carmella's business.

Percy arched an eyebrow. "Don't you have someone like Chiron in charge or Mr. D?"

"New campers are trained by Lupa at Wolf House," Andy explained, "but the two praetors are the ones in charge, they're voted on by the Senate."

"I heard it was a majority," Carmella added, violet eyes gleaming as she leaned forward and Andy's cheeks turned pink.

" _Aw,_ Carm, did you vote for _me?"_ she snarked back.

"There's a clause against siblings voting for each other," Carmella sniggered and Andy's expression soured before she appealed to Percy.

"Percy, Carmella's being mean to me!"

Percy gave a very put upon sigh. He dealt with so much from the pair of them.

* * *

The purple toga didn't look all that bad, Andy conceded when she first put it on over her silver armor, a gift from her father. Imperial Gold armor was more common, but gold had never been Andy's favorite metal.

The silver armor, on the other hand, was mined in her father's underwater forges by the Cyclopes and Andy couldn't tell if it was an early birthday present –and she could only ever recall her father gifting her her trident– or maybe it was a simple gesture to acknowledge how much Andy's life had been uprooted by the knowledge of what Asteria had done.

Andy brushed her hair back and looked in the mirror. Andromeda Jackson-Black, daughter of Neptune and Praetor of the Twelfth Legion…it had a nice ring to it.

She took a deep breath and stepped out of the barracks, making her way over to the Senate House, every step echoing loudly in her ears until at least she reached the steps that led downwards, and Andy straightened her spine and stepped forward to accept the eagle medal from Matthew that only praetors were permitted to wear with a smile on her face.

And miles away, Nico di Angelo put a pen to paper and began to sketch the curve of an eye. He didn't know who it belonged to, but he knew if he would color it, it would be a shattered green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part one of CBD is officially done, next chapter we'll get into Andy as praetor in the start of part two. I'd also been playing around with the idea of Nico being an artist, which more people seem to like than hate, so its going to happen.
> 
> Sirius will be showing up more and we'll see Remus show up at some point, and Andy will finally get the help she needs.


	12. Last Will and Testament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we are officially into the second part of CBD, and I'm glad that everyone's happy with how Andy's turning her life around. This chapter will feature some ideas that were conceived on tumblr, and everyone seemed to like them, so they're going to be canon.

"I heard that Praetor just got her thirteen slash today."

"No _way!_ She would've had to've gotten her first one when she was _one!"_

It was hard not to be skeptical of the daughter of Neptune who was only weeks into being praetor, the youngest praetor ever recorded. And the rumors around her were startling.

"I heard she froze camp when she was seven and Jupiter made her a _god,"_ a descendant of Aurora, goddess of the dawn said, her eyes glowing.

"She's a _god?"_ a child of Fama, goddess of fame and rumor, asked, mouth gaping.

"Don't be stupid," another recruit, a son of Janus, the god of doorways, beginnings, and ends, scoffed. "She lost it when she attacked Jupiter."

The newest recruits looked towards the girl in question where she was a few feet away, squaring off against a descendent of Orcus, god of punishment, named Bryce. She was wielding her trident in the stead of her sword, but the boy still wasn't having much luck against her, though that was likely more to do with her experience and his lack of it.

She ducked suddenly, sweeping her leg out to send him toppling to the ground, breathing hard before nodding towards their usual instructor, who moved forward to begin their lesson once more.

Andy, on the other hand, sounded more winded that she usually was when she sat down at the edge of the arena, breathing in and out deeply.

"You all right?" Carmella practically materialized at her side, leaning over her in worry. "You're really pale."

And that was saying something.

Andy pressed a hand against her chest, trying to regulate her breathing. "I just need a moment."

"You had him on the ropes and he's a newbie," Carmella's brow furrowed in confusion. "How come you look worse than he does."

"Descendant of Orcus," Andy said breathlessly, "kind of hard to fight when you've got voices in your head." Orcus was, after all, the god of eternal punishment and broken oaths.

Carmella winced as she sat down beside her. "A great way to start your birthday, right?"

Andy rolled her eyes as the color returned to her cheeks. "It's not that big of a deal," she said. "I don't know why Mum's insisting—"

"Woman up," Carmella snorted, "it's just a small party, with you, me, the fam, and Jason…don't you have a therapy session in an hour?"

Andy groaned loudly. She didn't even know why she'd agreed to do it. Sure, it was helpful to talk through everything, to vent to someone and not sound like she was bitching for no reason. But he was dead and she wasn't sure what much else she could gain from those meetings.

"Maybe," Andy grumbled, before pulling herself upright and making her way off towards the Via Principalis to the second praetor house that was now hers, being in need of a new change of clothes.

* * *

"I don't see a point to me coming here anymore," was the first thing out of her mouth when she'd entered the room in the hospital of healer Emilie Cross. She was a mind healer and had been married to a descendant of Aesculapius for a few years, so it wasn't as though she wasn't familiar with the kinds of dangers that Andy had faced. "I've told you everything that happened, there's not much else to say."

"Andy," Emilie leaned back in her chair to look at the girl as she stood in front of the couch, her hands on her hips, "telling me what happened is not the same as telling me how you _felt_ about anything that happened…carrying around that much anger isn't good for you."

"Who says I'm angry?" Andy demanded with a scowl. "He's dead and for the first time in years…I feel _free."_

She said it with too much feeling to be a lie.

"I believe that," Emilie said, nodding her head, "but I still think you're angry."

Andy sat down hard on the couch, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Where to start?" she mumbled to herself.

"Wherever you feel comfortable," Emilie offered and for a moment Andy hated how easy going her therapist was.

"I'm mad because the people I trust either end up dead, betray me, or get injured in some way!" Andy finally exploded. "Asteria's the one who gave me life through Jupiter when I was born dying, but then she goes and has me kidnapped and tortured until my mind is broken, only to convince Bacchus to fix it up and pretend like she hadn't caused it in the first place!"

Emilie jotted down a few notes, but Andy was talking too fast to write everything down.

"I'm angry that—" Andy swallowed thickly, emotion rising in her chest. "I'm angry that two of my friends are _dead_ because I didn't realize that one of them was a traitor, selling us out to Saturn, and I'm angry because I was in a coma so I missed Marlene's shroud burning—" Her words caught in her throat and Andy leaned forward, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes, trying to will the pain like acid burning across her skin as far from her as possible.

"I'm _angry,"_ she said finally, "because Bacchry should've suffered worse than crushed by falling stones and in the end he still wins!"

"How does he win?" Emilie asked, her pen stilling over her paper as she considered Andy. "He's dead and you're alive…so why aren't you winning?"

"Because every day I have to look in the mirror and see what he did to me," Andy said grimly, fingering over the edge of one of her shoulders, feeling one of the slashes upraised over her skin. "I can't go swimming without wearing a shirt over my swimsuit because mortals will stare. If I wear a tank top, they stare more."

"He made you uncomfortable in your own skin," Emilie put it to words

"He did a lot of things," Andy muttered.

"The scarring to your back is quite significant, isn't it?"

Andy flinched. "My sister thinks I should try for minimizing the scar tissue magically."

Cassie was the one that had suggested it to Carmella, who'd passed on the suggestion delicately. Andy's skin hadn't quite healed together correctly, that much was obvious with the upraised quality of the scars.

"Do you think so?" Emilie inquired curiously.

"I think…" Andy chewed on her lip. "I think I look at myself in the mirror and I'm just his _artwork."_ Her lips curled into a sneer around the word.

Emilie's brow furrowed. "Can you explain that?"

"Bacchry was second to no one in torture," Andy explained, "he was like an artist, only his art was torture, and I'm proof of how skilled he was." Her scars, her eyes…you couldn't look at her and think that there wasn't something different about her. It made her sick to her stomach. "Minimizing the scars won't change anything. They'll still be there."

"But they won't be as significant," Emilie pointed out, "you won't notice them as much, maybe they will still be there, but you won't have to worry so much about people noticing your back like you do now."

Andy crossed her ankles looking uncomfortable. "Maybe," she muttered, raising a hand to run her fingers through her hair.

Her finger felt lighter since she'd removed the ring Nico had given her. It was tucked away safely in a box on her desk in the second praetor house. She'd just felt so uncomfortable wearing it when Nico had no idea who she even was.

"How are your dreams?" Emilie asked her instead and Andy forced her attention to return to the present.

"They're better," Andy admitted with a frown, "not great, but not as terrible as they were before."

Emilie smiled. "That's good. How many times are you waking up in the night?"

Her brow furrowed in thought. "Got a full night last night, but the dreams weren't great. But it's usually down to me waking up once a night."

Emilie nodded, making another note on her papers.

"Are you happy?" Emilie asked and Andy appeared rather startled by the question, and she thought for much longer than anyone else would when they were asked that kind of question.

"I'm content," Andy said finally, "and I think that's the best I'm going to get."

Emilie gave her a half-smile. "And are you content being content?"

"I think so," Andy said, bobbing her head. After all, what hero had ever gotten a happy ending; Andy couldn't think of one. Not even Andromeda and Perseus had gotten their happy ending.

"If there's one person that deserves happiness," Emilie spoke gently, meeting Andy's eyes unblinkingly, "it's you. And I'm sure you'll find it…maybe not right now…but someday."

And Andy smiled.

* * *

"It was kind of you to invite me," Sirius said politely as the Jackson children (plus one Potter and one Grace) were holed up in the living room playing some card game that Andy was epically losing at, something Carmella and Percy appeared to enjoy immensely.

"You're Andy's family," Sally sighed, looking over him with a careful glance. Sirius had only just been released from the hospital that day, and she had to admit that whatever they'd given him had done him well. He looked much healthier, no longer the ghost of the man that he'd been before. "And she thought you could use some cake."

Sally smirked when Sirius rolled his eyes as he helped her clean up the last of the plates. There was barely any cake left, the kids had practically devoured it, along with the dinner Sally had planned.

"That is an illegal move!" Andy's voice rose above the others.

"No its not, you're just jealous you didn't think of it," Percy admonished.

" _How dare you!"_ Andy sounded positively scandalized while Carmella howled with laughter as Jason flopped back onto the floor and Harry sniggered loudly. "Why I oughta—"

The presents had already been opened and cleared away before the children had started their game. Her mother and siblings and nephew had gotten her a thick-chained necklace with a trident charm, and Sirius had gone out and gotten a circular charm with a protective enchantment against minor poisons that day as a gift. And then she'd gotten a photo album to take to school with her and Carmella.

Jason had gotten her a nice box for her medals and Marlene's, whose she'd been keeping on her person since her friend's death.

Carmella was still laughing as Jason yanked Andy back from throttling her brother.

Sirius couldn't help but smile fondly. He only wished that he and Regulus had had a similar relationship. But then he cleared his throat, turning Sally's attention back towards him.

"I would like to be a part of Harry's life…if it's all right with you," he said, glancing towards his godson who'd wound his body around Jason's leg to keep him from helping Percy in holding Andy at bay.

"I didn't know James Potter," Sally said, making him blink, "but Lily did visit me the day Andy was born, so I know Harry came from a good place, and I think it might do him good to see someone who knew them well."

Sirius' anxiety calmed. "Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"You're not even related to him," Sirius said softly, "but you've looked after him like he's your own."

Sally's lips twisted. "I only met Petunia –Lily's sister– once, and that was the day she signed over Harry's custody completely to me, and I got the feeling that she didn't particularly like her nephew…I think it was something about the eyes."

"Gran!" Harry called over to them where he wound around Jason's back, his spindly arms wrapped around Jason's eyes, keeping him from seeing while Andy wrestled Percy to the ground, leaving Carmella to scramble out of the way. "I got Jason!"

"Good job, baby," Sally laughed, "now make sure none of you walk into anything breakable, all right?"

Sirius laughed. "I glad he's happy here."

"So am I," Sally murmured, only to be interrupted from her musings by the doorbell ringing. "Make sure they don't actually kill each other, will you?"

Sirius gave a salute as she moved to open the door, plastering a smile to face to greet the person beyond it.

"Hello," she said, "can I help you?"

The woman was dressed primly in a deep blue pantsuit strawberry blonde hair bound in a tight bun and she held a manila envelope in her hands.

"Hello," the woman said, "my name is Claudia Dwayne, I'm an attorney with Carson's Magical Law Office…I'm looking for someone named Andromeda Jackson-Black."

"She's my daughter," Sally said with a furrowed brow. "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all," Claudia Dwayne smiled, "I was the attorney of a young woman named Calliope Evans."

Sally had heard the name before, but she still knew very little about the girl in question, other than the fact that she'd created Hecate House and Andy thought she'd gotten her killed.

"Please," Sally said, stepping back, "come in." Then she turned back to call over her shoulder. "Andy, someone hear for you." The noise in the living room ceased and Andy clamored off of the floor, straightening her shirt and brushing her hair back as the attorney stepped into the room.

"Miss Jackson-Black, I presume?" Claudia Dwayne inquired, extending a hand and Andy frowned at her before doing the same.

"That would be me," Andy agreed.

"My name is Claudia Dwayne, I'm the attorney of Calliope Evans," the witch said and Andy's frown deepened.

"Was."

"I beg your pardon?" the attorney asked.

"You _were_ Calliope's attorney," Andy corrected with a wince.

Claudia Dwayne's smile grew faintly tight. "Yes, I was," she said, extending the manila envelope to Andy. "This is for you."

Andy's brow furrowed and she undid the clasp while her family and friends exchanged curious looks.

She started in surprise, reading out: _"The Last Will and Testament of Calliope Andrea Evans?"_

Carmella arched an eyebrow as Andy unfurled the parchment.

_I, Calliope Andrea Evans of Hecate House, New York, hereby declare this to be my Will. I nominate Andromeda Atalanta Jackson-Black of Hecate House, New York, to be the Executor of my Estate._

"This can't be right," Andy said, barely having read into the will, "she wouldn't have named me her Executor of her Estate…I was still eleven when she died."

"Age isn't a factor that she took into consideration," Claudia Dwayne said dryly and Andy turned her eyes back to the parchment.

_The entire residue of the property owned by me at my death, real and personal and wherever situate, I devise and bequeath to my Executor of my Estate, Andromeda Jackson-Black. My entirety of my possessions will be gifted to her within thirty days of my death._

"I don't understand," Andy said, her brow furrowed. "Calliope was traveling constantly, she didn't have any possessions, and what she left at Hecate House was probably burnt to the ground."

Claudia Dwayne arched an eyebrow, no doubt wondering if that was how her former client's death had come about. "I don't know anything about that, but she left a key to a storage locker at Storage Keeper off of seventh…and this."

The witch handed over a small key and a crisp envelope that had Andy's name splashed across it in that hasty scrawl that could have only been Calliope's.

"I believe that's everything," Claudia Dwayne said with a slight smile, "I think it would be best if I see myself out…" And with that said, she inclined her head just barely and turned on her heel, leaving the room in silence as attention looked to the envelope as Andy broke the seal and read the contents.

_Andy—_

_This will is a precaution, I'm not entirely sure if I need it, but my father taught me to always be prepared, always have a contingency. I'm sure you've heard me mention it more than once._

Andy smiled faintly.

_I travel too much to think of rooting my life anywhere, and the entirety of everything I consider valuable I keep in storage locker twelve at Storage Keeper for magical storage keeping. If something does happen to me, it's up to you to decide what to do with its contents._

_There's no one else I could think of entrusting my things to, mostly because I trust people so little. But being alone has only gotten me so far, take it from me, you're better off with friends._

_Wishing you all the best,_

_Calliope_

Andy chewed on the inside of her cheek. Calliope had never been one to mince her words, but the bit about not being alone seemed almost like a jibe.

"So…what's it say?" Carmella asked so suddenly that Andy jumped.

"It's nothing," she said, clearing her throat. "Just an explanation."

Of sorts, and not nearly enough, if you asked Andy.

* * *

"How come you don't talk about this Calliope?" Percy asked her.

"Well, it might've had something to do with me getting her killed," Andy muttered, twisting the key between her fingers as they strolled down the long hallway, looking for number twelve.

"What's she talking about?" Percy murmured to Carmella.

"Calliope was looking into some things for Andy when she ran into Luke Castellan," Carmella said, not bothering to keep her voice down. "You didn't think she gave him that scar on his cheek for kicks, did you?"

"But who _was_ Calliope?"

"She was the daughter of Asteria," Andy spoke absently ahead of them, "and a young Marine. She was the first demi-titan in a couple hundred years."

"She made the gods uneasy," Carmella added, "kind of like Andy."

Andy shot a look over her shoulder and Carmella's grin widened. "You're my least favorite."

"Aw, _Andy,_ you're breaking my heart!"

Percy rolled his eyes as Andy twisted the key into the lock before pulling it off the storage door, kneeling to draw the door up, flicking the light on.

" _Wow,"_ Percy said, "was your friend a hoarder?"

The dim light illuminated the room, much larger than it was from the outside, but Andy wasn't really surprised, Calliope had always considered herself a bit of a nomad, she might have built Hecate House, contributing to its enchantments, but she'd barely lived there more than a few days, and only on visits.

That wasn't the thing that caught Andy's attention the most, it was that it was almost entirely packed to the max by box upon box.

"I didn't think so." Andy's eyebrows rose high on her forehead. "But I don't think I saw her with a lot of stuff in general."

"She had phases," Carmella informed Percy who furrowed a brow in confusion. "There was this one time she tried her hand at healing magic." A snort escaped her lips. "The results were a bit explosive."

"Or that time she tried the bow!" Andy's eyes gleamed as she snapped her fingers. "I didn't think it was possible for someone to be worse than me…ignoring Percy, _obviously."_

" _Hey!"_ Percy complained.

"You're not that bad," Carmella said, both of them ignoring Percy, her voice just a touch too high for Andy to believe her. "You've gotten better."

"My aim's _terrible,"_ Andy disagreed before stepping inside the room, investigating some boxes with a vague interest, and the other two followed suit.

None of the boxes were labeled, which wasn't very helpful, but that hadn't really been Calliope's thing.

"Why didn't you drag Harry along?" Percy asked Andy as she pulled her knife from where she tucked it into her wand holster in order to break the seal on one of the boxes.

"Harry and Ron are working on their swordsmanship," Carmella sniggered, "personally, I think Harry needs it more than Ron, but suffering together is what friends do, right?"

Andy hid her smile as she opened the box.

The first one was clothes, which wasn't too surprising, given that Calliope traveled around with only a few days of clothes on her at all times. The second one was marked with a ' _Cursed Objects DO NOT TOUCH'_ so Andy thought it best to avoid it.

The third box she opened had a small pouch on top of its contents.

Andy turned it over in her hand and a bracelet slid out into her palm, thick and like the coils of a rope, silver and intricate.

"I'd be careful with that one if I was you, love," a new voice said and Andy jolted, twisting around.

Carmella was frozen with her back to Andy and Percy was halfway through lifting something from inside a box he was inspecting, but her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the boy standing before her, but she knew better than to think what he appeared to be was his true age.

His dark hair fell into his eyes, but those flames where his eyeballs should have been were unmistakable.

" _You!"_ Andy pointed a finger in accusation towards the boy. "You were that boy at that café in Greece!"

He smiled eerily in an almost unnerving manner. "Yes, I was…perhaps by now you've guessed who I am."

Andy swallowed thickly. "You're Perses, the Titan of Destruction…Asteria's husband."

"Indeed," Perses said, somehow managing to pull off a calculating expression despite his eyes ruining the image.

A winding fury began to build up inside Andy and she glared viciously. "If you're here in her stead, you can to her to _shove—"_

"I'm not, but I shall pass on your sentiments," Perses said, sounding faintly amused. "I was actually rather fond of Calliope." His long fingers smoothed over one of the boxes and Andy found herself staring.

She'd only met her godly step-mother Salacia once and the goddess of springs couldn't have made it plainer that she had a bit of difficulty dealing with her existence. Andy could understand that; she and her brother were proof of her husband's infidelity. Most gods whose partners had sired demigod children didn't appear to particularly like those childen.

Salacia was probably the nicest godly step-mother to have, now that Andy thought about it.

"Really?" she asked doubtfully.

"It's difficult to believe, I'm sure, but it's true nonetheless." Perses shrugged his shoulders. "Calliope was… _unique_ , and her viewpoints on the world were rather intriguing."

Andy chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Why are you here, Lord Perses?"

He reached out a hand, taking the bracelet from her hand before grasping her wrist and sliding it on. His touch made her jump; it was like a handful of flames.

Then his grip tightened on her wrist and she felt like she was burning and those eyes of flames were terrifyingly close.

"There's a storm coming, daughter of Neptune," Perses said solemnly, "New Rome has more enemies than Luke Castellan to consider. Brace yourself."

She breathed in sharply, but the next second he was gone and Andy was holding her wrist to her chest, the skin red where he'd gripped her, unease wrapping around her heart in a vice-like grip.

"Hey, Andy," Percy called over to her and Andy almost jumped. "There's a box over here with your name on it."

"What?" she said blankly.

"A box with your name on it," he repeated. "It says ' _for Andy'."_

"What's in it?" Carmella asked with interest as Andy made her way to her brother's side to look inside the box in confusion.

"Photography equipment," she said in confusion, lifting up what looked to be a Polaroid camera on top of everything else within the box.

Why on earth would Calliope specifically leave her photography equipment? And what had Perses even meant?

She was left with more questions than answers.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one person had an idea of who Perses was, but he's a minor titan, so it's not that surprising.
> 
> Calliope is actually super important to Andy's development as a character, and it's too bad that she's already dead, but that's the way this fic works. She made a habit of knowing what was best for people despite knowing so little about them, which will explain the photography equipment in the next few chapters.


	13. Troublesome Possibilities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been awhile since my last update, but I've had so many things on my plate this semester at nursing school. Almost everything in this part of this book is going to be 'filler' since canon doesn't start until December, but I'm looking forward to writing Nico as an artist and Andy as a photographer.
> 
> And I have watched way too many videos on developing black and white, and color film. For any readers that know a thing or two about photography, if screw anything up too badly, please let me know! There won't be as much on it in this chapter, but it will increase as the fic goes on.

"This is a _lot_ of photography equipment," Rachel remarked the day Andy showed up to her house, said equipment tucked into her undetectably expanded bag at her waist.

Rachel had been out of town with her parents when Andy's birthday had rolled around, hence why she'd missed it, and she was a bit sorry about it, but Andy didn't mind. The Jacksons' birthdays were all pretty close together; Andy had missed Carmella's when she'd been unconscious and Carmella hadn't really felt like celebrating (but that wasn't going to stop Andy from getting her a gift), Harry's was later that week, and Percy's was in August.

Andy looked through the viewfinder of the Polaroid camera that had been at the top of the box that Calliope had left her, turning to focus on Rachel who had the equipment out on her bed, looking them over with interest. The sunlight was streaming in through the window, giving her hair an almost red-gold appearance. She clicked and there was a small flash that made Rachel jerk up to look at her and then roll her eyes for good measure.

"You know, I think your friend might've been onto something with you photography," she said dryly as a film popped out and Andy removed it, setting it lightly on floor to allow the color to slowly appear.

The Polaroid camera was a bit more modern than some that Andy had seen in movies, but it was still a simple black; Andy didn't think Calliope would've contended with equipment that was outlandish colors. Luckily, that meant it was far less clunkier in appearance and much simpler to operate in comparison.

"Maybe," Andy acquiesced, putting the Polaroid down in order to stand and amble to where Rachel was sitting. "Does any of this make sense to you?"

Artistry wasn't exactly something that was very celebrated in New Rome, great artists were rare and many thought it was a soft subject, but Andy had been fighting and raging for years, seeing only the ugliest side of the world, maybe it was time to see the beauty.

"Well…" Rachel scratched her cheek, looking a little sheepish, "painting has always been my strongest suit, you know."

"I know." A smirk painted across Andy's lips. It was something that was rather hard to forget when Rachel was the type to wear remnants of her paintings on her body.

"But I'd say this is all top of the line," Rachel added, turning to look at Andy curiously. "Did your friend come from money?"

Andy shrugged. "She was her dad's sole heir; she got all his money when he died. There was a bit left, though…I haven't really figured what to do with it yet…" She looked vaguely uncomfortable at the thought.

Technically speaking, she was the Heiress Black, despite Sirius being older and Walburga's biological son and Andy had tried to offer it back to him but Sirius had refused. He'd been disowned in every sense of the word, and honestly, he kind of liked it better that way. He still had a bit of inheritance left from his uncle Alphard to be well off for awhile. He'd gotten an apartment in the same complex as the Jacksons, claiming it was cheap, but Andy knew better; it was because of Harry, it was _always_ because of Harry.

She might just transfer it to the accounts her mother had set up for Percy and Carmella some time ago. Andy and Harry had their own money not to be very concerned about it.

"You've got a long lens on one of these," Rachel pointed out, skating past her previous question with ease, lifting one of the bulky cameras (and Andy was still a bit dubious about why Calliope had so many) that had a bit of a prominent lens, "that's for magnification, but everything else I think is pretty focused on things that are generally right in front of you…I think you're probably going to have to learn how to develop film…"

"There's a two-week class at the university in New Rome," Andy said, unperturbed. "Mum thought I should take it since I've been a bit interested in the cameras for the past few days."

Sally had been a bit amused when Andy kept popping back to the apartment to take random pictures of things before returning to New Rome. Andy was sure that sooner rather than later she was going to run out of film for the Polaroid.

"We'll see how it goes," Andy said, sounding remarkably unconcerned, but it made Rachel smile as she leaned over the side of the bed in order to grab the film that Andy had taken a few moments ago, considering it for a few moments before handing it to Andy.

"It's not a bad picture," Rachel conceded with a grin. "Looks like you've got a good eye."

Andy took it from her, looking it over as well. The light shining in through the window made her almost shine, her eyes just a bit greener and her hair gleaming in the light. She looked very pretty, but Rachel had always been a bit pretty.

"Or good timing," Andy admitted. That seemed to be quite necessary for photographer, in order to get the moment just right with the lighting and the shadows.

Rachel cast a glance towards Andy. "Andy…what did you want to be when you're older?" She didn't say _'grown up'_ , she didn't really think that phrase applied to Andy.

Andy pulled a small chest from her bag, opening it and giving Rachel a split second to see a few Polaroid films within, adding the one she just took to the mix.

"I wanted to be an Auror for awhile," Andy confessed. "I figured it was the best choice for me, you know, with all the fighting…but you get tired of it after awhile and I've learned not to trust authority figures."

Rachel's brow furrowed slightly. "Well, I think you'd be better off with photography than being an Auror."

Andy gave her a smile that made her eyes shimmer.

* * *

There was a program for kids at the University of Maine at Fort Kent that Nico and Bianca were enrolled in prior to starting school at a magical school called Westover Hall. Nico was going into third year, barely making the cut-off with his birthday not being until mid-December, and Bianca's birthday wasn't until March, so she was going into fifth year. Nico couldn't really remember the school they'd gone to previously or why they'd decided to change, but it was what it was.

Their education and food and board was paid for by through a trust fund –from their father, from their mother, they didn't know, all they knew was that both were long gone– and they were carted around by their lawyer, a sallow-faced man with a bit of a hunch.

Nico left his Aspen wand at the apartment they'd been given while he was at the university for his single art class, but Bianca was too careful for that, she took her Fir wand wherever she went and lectured Nico when he didn't. He didn't know what her deal was; it wasn't like there was much to use them with. The rules surrounding using magic in America were much more lax than in the UK, so you could get away with using underage magic as long as it was within the safety of your own home and as long as the spells weren't dangerous.

He tried not to think about that bus driver with ram horns, no matter how many times Bianca had tried to convince him he was seeing things.

So while Bianca went off to her archery class, Nico went in the opposite direction to his art class. There were sketchbooks tucked in his bag and he was never without several pencils and erasers.

Today the teacher was looking over everyone's recent sketches and giving them critiques, and Nico, who sat in the very back of class (for a very specific reason, too) was the last to be looked over and Miss Mallory looked through his sketches with interest.

"You capture shape and proportionate size very well," she complimented him and Nico tried not to look too pleased, but he was sure that it showed. "You have some issues with shading giving a sort of realism through wrinkles in clothing on figures, though."

Nico nodded and frowned. It was something he'd had trouble with.

Miss Mallory flipped to the next page to consider the figure Nico had sketched the previous day. It was the same girl from his dreams, the one whose shattered eyes were the first picture he'd sketched in the sketchbook. Her hair was in loose curls, falling to her shoulders, wearing a sword looped through one of her belt loops on her opposite side and holding a trident pointed toward the ground.

She arched an eyebrow towards Nico, but he offered no explanations, not that he had any really good ones. He dreamed about her every so often, sometimes younger, sometimes a little older, but always the same shattered green eyes, the same white and blue streaked hair, and the same dangerous smirk. Nico toyed with the idea that maybe she was someone real, because he didn't think he could dreamed up someone like her on his best day.

"I like the detail you put into her curls," Miss Mallory said, clearing her throat, "but…her eyes—"

"Oh, they're supposed to be like that," Nico said quickly.

"That's an... _interesting_ artistic choice."

Nico opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it abruptly, feeling a bit confused as to what he was about to say. Luckily, Miss Mallory didn't appear to have noticed, as she continued looking through his work.

"I'd say you've gotten the hang of stationary objects, but you still need a bit of work on figures."

Nico nodded again, but his lips were drawn downwards into a frown, something she was quick to pick up on.

"Oh, don't worry," Miss Mallory assured him, "you're doing _very_ well, and practice always makes perfect." But then she considered him thoughtfully. "Have you ever considered branching out into painting?"

His surprise was evident on his face. He'd only been sketching for…how long had he been sketching? Nico couldn't really recall, his memories were rather disturbingly vague. "Not really," he admitted.

"Maybe you should consider it," Miss Mallory advised. "I teach the class after this one and I wouldn't mind adding you to the group, we're not very big, anyways."

Nico had never tried anything like that before.

"Think about it, you could enjoy it." She smiled and Nico had to wonder.

* * *

The mess hall was bustling with noise, but that was usual. Carmella and Harry ate with the rest of Fourth Cohort, but since Andy was now Praetor, she ate with Matthew at the high table.

"You're worried," she noticed, taking a bite out of her lasagna and swallowing thickly as Matthew twisted his pasta around on his fork. "Don't try to hide it."

Matthew heaved a heavy sigh, and Andy was reminded that he was only a few years older and still looked as though he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "I'm not trying to hide it."

"You're just not making it very _obvious,"_ Andy acquiesced, reaching over to touch his arm. "We're partners now, remember?"

Matthew rubbed at chin before reaching under his chair and handing her a folder that made Andy furrow her brow as she took it from him.

"You remember Jamie Corsack?"

Jamie was hard to forget. She was the daughter of the goddess of silence, Angerona, and she never spoke a word, only communicating via sign language, and Andy had to admit, being able to interpret the flutter of her fingers had always been a bit difficult for her, but Jamie had been no stranger to that; she'd carried a small white board around with her to get her point across to people who didn't know sign language.

She had to be about fifteen by now, but Andy hadn't seen her around in awhile. Third Cohort had been missing one of its centurions for awhile.

"I've had her look into the campers leaving Camp Jupiter," Matthew said and Andy shot him a look.

Campers leaving was something that had been more obvious with Camp Half-blood, since there'd been a small number and thus, they'd been more noticeable, but with Camp Jupiter, there were just too many people to consider.

Andy slid the pictures out of the folder, her eyes narrowing as she flipped them over. Michael Ferin was on the first one, pointing to something beyond the frame, a scowl darkening his face.

"I did some asking around," Matthew said quietly, "apparently Ferin left the police force and practically vanished after he hunted you, Jason, and Reyna down in… _wherever you were."_ He cast a glance towards her, and it couldn't have been made plainer that he was rather aware of where they'd been but wasn't going to voice it.

"I'm not surprised," Andy said dryly, "he's been working for Saturn for years."

Matthew was familiar with the explanation she had given him at the hospital.

"I guess he was just waiting for the right time," Andy hummed before moving the picture to the back and looking to the next picture, glancing over the figures there before moving onto the next one. "How many have gone?"

"Since the last tally? Thirty-two."

Andy looked up from the pictures, to fix Matthew with a look. "And you're keeping it quiet?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you?" he returned.

"Maybe," Andy said with a small sigh, moving to the next picture. "I didn't realize so many people were…that _angry_ with the gods."

It was different for the Greeks. All the children of the minor gods who went unclaimed, all lumped into the Hermes cabin, their anger was understandable, but the Romans claimed their children, all of them.

But the gods could be very cruel and some didn't even notice or care when their children or descendants died. Revenge was a dish best served cold.

"D'you think he stuck around as long as he did to recruit campers?" Andy inquired. She could practically feel Carmella's curious glance from Fourth Cohort's table.

"I think it's a distinct possibility," Matthew said quietly.

Andy leaned back against her chair.

"I'm sorry," he added.

"What for?" Andy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Because next year I'm gone," Matthew said. "I'm resigning as Praetor when that time comes around…you'll be the senior Praetor, then."

"And someone's going to need to replace me during school," Andy admitted, rubbing at her eyes. "This year is going to suck."

"I can manage without a stand-in," Matthew mentioned, "while you're in school, I mean."

"I'm not really sure you can," Andy said, looking him over. Being Praetor had taken its toll on him, and he'd certainly been Praetor the longest (she wasn't completely certain and would have to check, but she was almost sure that he'd done it the longest documented). She didn't think there'd been another Praetor by his side since Ferin. "Matthew?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you wait until now to pick another Praetor?" Andy asked, her brow furrowed even as he smirked into his cup of orange juice.

"I didn't pick you," he said.

Andy rolled her eyes for good measure. "You're the one who gets the last word, though," she pointed out, "you could've vetoed me…some thought you should've."

Matthew shifted in his seat so he was turned more to fix his eyes on her. He was a strangely impressive sort of young man with blue eyes far too pale, far too knowing. "I have never been very much of a fan of Octavian and his group of followers, and I know you like him even less."

"I'm probably a bit more _obvious_ about it," Andy snorted into her apple cider.

"Besides, you're easily the most qualified in camp," Matthew continued, "I suppose having completed your required ten years is also helpful."

"That requirement is only to live in New Rome," Andy's voice turned wry as she looked through the pictures once more. "I don't think they'll attack yet, it seems to me that Ferin is just gathering forces for Saturn."

"That is my thought as well," Matthew said. "Perhaps we should instigate arena fights every week for everyone to keep their blades sharp."

Andy hummed in agreement, still looking over the pictures, unaware of the attention the pair had garnered from Fourth Cohort.

"What d'you think they're talking about?" Harry asked Carmella curiously, chewing on the last of his chicken. "They look serious."

"Well, they are in charge of everything," Ron snorted opposite his friend.

"You know what I mean," Harry retorted.

"It's kind of weird that she's not sitting with us anymore," Fred added with a bit of what might've been pseudo-contemplation, and a smile broke across her lips just slightly.

"You might've scared her off," she said and George laughed at the outraged look on his twin's face.

"That is completely _outrageous!"_ he said before quickly changing his tune. "But that would also be very _impressive!_ Imagine scaring _the Wolf!"_

"If you were a snake, it might do the trick," Carmella said thoughtlessly.

It was almost amusing that Andy was so scared of snakes, considering all the monsters she'd seen and how she'd walked through _hell itself_ , but there had been a snake on one of the quests she, Andy, Marlene, and… _Evaine_ had gone on together and Andy had screamed so loud and Marlene had been forced to carry her away.

As far as Carmella could tell, the only snakes that Andy could stand were the ones that wound around Mercury's caduceus, but, then again, they could actually speak and not leave the pole around which they were wound.

Carmella looked to where Andy was sitting, the lines of tension clear on her face. Whatever they were talking about up there, it was serious, and Carmella didn't want to think of why.

* * *

Carmella found her after lunch just a little bit away from the banks of the Tiber River, flat on her stomach with a camera in her hands with a long lens that she kept aimed at the soft waves of the river.

"You're really going all out with this photography thing," Carmella said, dropping down beside her. "Didn't you just start that class on developing film?"

"Yesterday," Andy agreed with a grin, focusing in on the waves, clicking the shutter-release button and snapping a picture, "and its…it's a bit _full on."_

"More than you were expecting?" Carmella arched an eyebrow. She didn't think she'd ever seen Andy interested in anything that didn't involve killing monsters before.

"A bit," Andy said, "there's a lot to the equipment needed, that's all we've really learned so far. The teacher isn't ready to let us loose on that stuff yet…its _really expensive_. Using a darkroom was really interesting to watch, though. Delilah knows her stuff."

Delilah Abernathy was a legacy of Veritas, the goddess of truth, and she was one of the older members of New Rome, already in her early forties and a _very_ skilled photographer. She taught at the university in New Rome, but it wasn't the only university she taught in and she was quite famous. Still, there were only about six people in her summer class, but none as young as Andy (though, she thought she made a few of them nervous, being one of the Praetors, after all).

Andy looked up from the display to look to her sister. "We still have Winter's laptop, don't we?" Andy had brought it with her to the new apartment when they'd moved –she couldn't bear to leave it behind; nothing else of Winter's had survived the fire of Hecate House–, but she'd lost track of it over the year.

"Yeah, it's probably in your room, with all that research you were doing for Sirius and…the stuff you had on Bacchry." Carmella watched her closely as she mentioned Andy's former tormentor. No one really brought up Bacchry anymore, not now that it was known that he was dead. As far as she knew, the counseling sessions were going well, at least, well enough that Andy wasn't really complaining about them. It was only in whispers that Bacchry was mentioned when new campers wondered about the youth of one of the Praetors.

Andy's hands tensed over her camera briefly and Carmella could see a muscle jump in her jaw before she forced herself to relax. "I'll have to look, then," she said. "Color comes out best in print."

Carmella gave a soft hum. "Did you notice that Harry's stopped calling the three of us 'aunt' and 'uncle'?" And by three, she meant herself, Andy, and Percy.

"I had," Andy's lips twisted in amusement as she shifted the camera in order to focus on a different part of the river. "I think it's too much of a hassle for him, really. I mean, we're all a bit close in age, even though Percy and I're the brother and sister of his mother…and he is _technically_ Mum's adoptive son."

"It doesn't bother you?"

Andy scrutinized her suddenly. "He asked you to find out if it did, didn't he?"

Carmella gave her a disarming smile. "I'm a senator that cares about my centurions."

Her sister rolled her eyes. "I don't mind. 'Aunty' and 'Andy' sound too similar for me to really care…Is he going to switch from 'Gran' to 'Mum'?"

"I think he _might."_ Carmella frowned with concentration. "I mean, she's not really his grandmother, and she's _way_ too young to be a grandmother."

A smile curved Andy's lips. "You should tell her that."

"D'you think I should start calling her 'Mum' too?" Carmella asked.

She'd always tread very carefully around the word, ever since Sally Jackson formally adopted her. Her mother was Venus, and she did love Venus, very much, even though she still wondered how a goddess like her could fall for someone like Adomo Romano. But Sally Jackson had struggled enough with her own children and Harry, yet she had opened her home and heart up to Carmella, and Carmella was forever grateful for her being the kind person that she was.

"I think you should only do that if you're comfortable with it," Andy said decisively as a blond-haired boy made his towards where they were laying on their stomachs and rather belatedly both seemed to realize it was a rather awkward position, but, luckily, it was only Jason, and he plopped to sit down on Andy's other side.

"Aren't you supposed to be running camp?" he asked her.

"Would you _like_ a knife to the kidney?" Andy replied rhetorically without even looking at him and he grinned widely.

"Want to spar?"

"Probably," Andy said, clicking the button again. "Actually, it's a good thing you're here, Jason."

"Why?" Jason drawled out suspiciously as Andy sat up, replacing her camera with the long lens into a box behind to protect it from damage before picking up a smaller one.

Carmella arched an eyebrow.

"Congratulations, I've nominated you as my replacement for Praetor during the school year."

And with a click she caught the unbridled horror and surprise on his face that he would later fervently deny while both girls laughed at his expense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Andy's getting her life together a bit more. She's likely to have at least one camera on her at all times, because she's going to turn into a big fat nerd. Sirius should be in the next chapter, but don't quote me on that.


	14. Changing Tides

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really glad everyone likes where things are going with Nico and Andy and their respective interests in different types of art. Andy's life has always been a bit dark, so I wanted her to enjoy a bit more happiness with her newfound interest in photography

Andy found she liked using film for images that were black and white, the lack of colors was a bit more dramatic, but she admitted color was drama in itself. Some pictures were better suited for colors, some weren't.

And Andy had been a busy bee for the past two weeks, during the course of her photography class she had easily taken the most pictures out of the students participating. She kept the film in dark canisters when she was done so as not to expose the negatives to light, and she was running low on the canisters, which was saying something.

Part of the class had involved making something called a proof sheet which was basically just a print sheet of the films she had developed with about four pictures a line. Andy, like everyone in the class, kept her proofs and a few of the pictures they'd developed the last two days in a portfolio binder, with the images in transparent sheet protectors.

Her mother looked over the pictures with obvious interest as they sat in the waiting room of Mercy Hospital, waiting to be seen. Andy liked that she was taking her time with each page, caring enough to look at each image with care.

Sally smiled at a few of them.

"So what d'you think?" Andy asked, her ankle bouncing every so often where it was crossed over her leg. It was hard for her to even tell if it was nervousness about her mother looking at her work, or impatience in waiting to see the healer.

"They're beautiful," Sally said finally, her eyes glinting with pride and Andy beamed.

"I told Delilah that I had all this photography equipment tucked away and she thinks I should make my own dark room." Andy's face had positively lit up at the prospect, and Sally didn't think she'd ever seen her quite so excited and it made her eyes soften, something that Andy was quick to pick up on.

" _What?"_ she asked suddenly. "Why're you looking at me like that?"

Sally's lips curved upwards and she laughed. "Can't I be proud of my daughter enjoying something she loves?"

Her daughter's cheeks pinked. "I dunno what that is, but I don't think it's that," she grumbled to herself, crossing her arms and sinking into her uncomfortable chair further when a voice called out: "Andromeda Jackson-Black."

" _Gods_ , that is such a mouthful," Andy complained, grabbing the binder from her mother as she stood. "Why couldn't you give me a less complicated name?"

"You could always drop the 'Black'," Sally pointed out, standing with her.

"Well, it's too late now, it's grown on me," Andy grumbled, tucking the binder under her arm as she stalked over to the healer standing off to the side, waiting for them. He was a bit older, graying dark hair and a short wiry beard over a round russet chin. "I'm Andy," she said and he gave her a smile.

Generally Andy didn't like men that were older than their twenties because they made her think too much of Bacchry, they made her uncomfortable. She'd never trusted authority figures, though. Her teachers at school had never liked her attitude and it was a cop that had tried to kill her, Reyna, and Jason.

But Andy wanted her scars less evident more than she was afraid of being alone with a man (or at least, almost alone).

"I'm Healer Bhat," the man said with a thick accent and dark eyes that matched his smile. His eyes were nothing like the ones Andy still remembered from her nightmares, colored like wine. "If you'll follow me please."

He led them into a small private room with an examining bed and a light above for enhancing the brightness on the person that lay there. Andy hopped up onto the bed without any prompting and her mother shook hands with the healer.

"Sally Jackson," she said, "I'm Andy's mother."

"It's a pleasure," the healer said easily as he shut the door behind him and Andy moved the thick black bands around her wrists to hide the scars Bacchry's shackles had left her with. "I understand you're interested in scar reduction?"

He was looking at her mother, but Andy spoke.

"Yes," she said, and the eyes turned on her, silent and appraising briefly.

"I understand from Emilie Cross that this might be difficult for you, having the scars reduced by me, and if you'd prefer a different healer I won't be offended," the healer said patiently and with understanding.

Andy's fingers rubbed over the spot where Nico's ring had once rested on her finger. She knew that he meant a healer that was a woman.

"I heard you're the best," Andy said finally, glancing towards her mother briefly.

"I am," Healer Bhat said without a hint of arrogance. Andy couldn't help but wonder if scar reduction was a thing that many healers preferred to specialize in.

"Can my mother sit in during the…um…the procedure?" Andy stumbled through her words briefly.

The walls were painfully white, and she found that she liked Emilie's office better, there wasn't a single white item in that room, even though the colors were sometimes bright and obnoxious and there were toys on the shelf in the corner for the younger kids that she counseled. It was better than the room Andy was currently in, that much she knew. But she also knew that she preferred the white to the darkness she had constantly been bathed in while she'd been Bacchry's prisoner.

"Of course," Healer Bhat said. "Most children have their parents with them during procedures like this."

Andy wrinkled her nose at the word ' _children',_ it wasn't really a word she used to describe herself; she'd never really been a child.

"Some can find scar reduction spells to be a bit painful," he warned, looking to Andy's mother briefly and Andy watched her jaw tighten before speaking.

"Don't worry, I'm good with pain."

* * *

Sally had ducked out to have a word with the healer, allowing her other children to come by for a visit before the procedure, and when they entered, Andy was already wearing the hospital gown that hardly hid anything and exposed her back.

"This is a very strange hospital," was the first thing Percy muttered when she saw the room Andy was sitting around in, her phone to her ear, the charm replaced with a more active one to keep the monsters from sensing demigod calls ("On the house, just this once," Lou-Ellen had said). He'd been in one of the rooms before and the lobby, but not long enough to take it in, and Mercy Hospital was very different from the hospitals he'd seen on TV.

"I'm going to call you back, Matthew," Andy said before rolling her eyes, "yes, I promise I'll relax, I'll only be gone for a day or two, so you don't have to worry." She cancelled the call before he could say anything in reply.

"Hi," she added, dropping the phone onto the bedside table, "come to see me off?"

"Something like that," Carmella said, rolling her eyes as she made her way over to her sister's side, looking her over intently. "I heard scar reduction can be painful."

Andy shrugged helplessly. "They're going to numb my back before they start, but I might still feel a little."

"That doesn't sound like fun," Harry said, hopping up onto the hospital bed beside her. He was the only small enough to really fit next to her.

Percy came around to her other side, looking her over with an expression that only a big brother would wear. She looked so small on the hospital bed, wearing that off-white gown, with Harry sandwiched to her side, or maybe it was that the bed was so big. Still, she looked lighter in spirit than she had in months, in years really.

"Sirius wanted to come, but he said he was surprised by a friend stopping by to see him," Carmella added, "but he'll drop by to see you after."

"He doesn't have to," Andy said, a small frown on her lips. Sirius was still recovering from years in Azkaban.

"He knows _that,"_ Carmella snorted.

Andy's eyes flicked towards Percy as her sister took her phone, tucking it into the back pocket of her pants. "You're awfully quiet," she mentioned.

Percy shrugged, still thinking of one of the pictures tucked into Andy's folder on all that Nox Bacchry had done to her, thinking of the picture of Andy's bare back, marred with cuts and lashes that didn't heal right. "I just wish you'd never had those scars in the first place."

There were a lot of things Percy wished about his sister. He wished they'd grown up together. He wished she'd never been kidnapped twice over. He wished Nox Baccry had never used her as his personal knife-sharpener. He wished the world had been less cruel to her.

But Andy gave him a half-smile. "We can't all get what we want."

Then a woman in scrubs lighter than the healer appeared in the doorway with an easy smile for Andy. "Ready, Andy?"

"Might as well get this over with," Andy said, ruffling Harry's hair as she scooted off the bed before flashing a grin and a peace sign to her siblings, making them laugh before turning back, and Percy was afforded the view of Andy's back, unhidden under layers and somehow it was worse than seeing it in a photograph.

He gritted his teeth behind his lips.

* * *

"So you heard about the trial, then?"

Sirius' fingers were locked around mug of lukewarm tea. It was peppermint-flavored, Andy's choice of a heartwarming gift when he'd first gotten the apartment in the same complex as them.

There were sparse decorations now, mostly Sally's suggestions, but it was still homier than his room at Grimmauld Place had been and he was in the prospect of having his things being sent over from London, since the Aurors had acquisitioned his belongings from his small flat that he'd been living in at the time of his arrest.

There was only one framed photograph, and it was propped on the counter. It had been taken for Andy's birthday, the Jackson siblings (including Harry) and Andy's cousin Jason all on the couch with their arms around each other. Harry's smile was wide, but not as wide as Andy's was.

Compared to the well made apartment, his companion was far more worn down, which Sirius thought was a rather apt description.

The last time he'd seen Remus Lupin had been long before James and Lily had been killed, long before he'd been put away. Remus had been undercover at the time.

Remus winced. "I only heard about it a week ago…I was in Albania, doing some work."

Finding whatever work he could, Sirius knew he meant. He'd gathered that it had only gotten worse over the years he had been incarcerated for werewolves.

"I'm _sorry,"_ Remus added, his green eyes lost in the light. They were so very different than Harry's –than Lily's– or Percy's or Andy's, but no one had eyes like Andy's. "I should've known it wasn't you, _but—"_

Sirius could've said a lot of things, a lot of hurtful things, but Azkaban had sapped him of his anger long ago.

"Don't worry about it," he said and Remus' mouth opened to refute, but Sirius pressed on. "I'm serious. I didn't suspect…Pettigrew either." His name dripped from Sirius' mouth like poison. "I beat myself enough up over it…now I just want to live. I want to be a part of Harry's life—"

Remus put down his own cup with a resounding noise, his eyes wide. "You've _seen_ him?"

"Well, yeah." Sirius blinked in surprise. "He lives here, in New York, with his adoptive family."

"Adoptive –what?" Remus spluttered in confusion. "I thought he was living with his aunt?"

Sirius wrinkled his nose in disdain. He knew that Lily had never gotten on with her sister, at least, not since she'd started at Hogwarts, of course it might've helped that the pair of them were only half-siblings, having different fathers.

"It didn't work out," Sirius said flatly, "he's living with his mother's family, though."

"I thought Petunia _was_ his mother's family," Remus responded in befuddlement.

"Its, er… it's a bit complicated," Sirius said after a long silence. It was going to talk all day to explain the complicated intricacies that was the Jackson family and his present ties to them through Andy and hers to Lily.

Might as well get started.

* * *

When Andy awoke, she was so sluggish that she passed out once more, only getting a glimpse of white walls and a humming sound that was undoubtedly voices above her, but Andy's mind were too much like mush to comprehend it very much before she slid back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Andy's cheek was pressed to the sand and her eyelids fluttered open slowly, blinking a few times as she roused completely, but it was the smell that hit her first, the salt water on the air.

The waves were soft, washing up over her arm where it was stuck out to her side. The sun was warm as it glowed overhead and Andy sat up, pulling her arm back and looking around herself.

She had no idea where she was, of course, she wasn't all that familiar with islands to begin with. She knew New York relatively well, and parts of California, and even some of Greece, but this place she didn't know.

Andy looked down at herself in dismay.

She was wearing a _dress._

Andy _hated_ dresses.

It was pure white and pooling around her legs with one sleeve falling loose at her elbow. It was in the Greek style, she knew, but that only served to irritate her more.

A voice to her side laughed. "I always thought you'd look good in white."

Andy turned her head quickly and was almost blinded by the sun. Her heart leapt even though she couldn't quite place the voice and in her delirium, her only thought was of Marlene with her blazing red hair and brown eyes bright when she grinned, but the voice wasn't hers.

She brought a hand to cup over her brow, looking up as the figure shifted on their feet and out of the sun.

Calliope Evans was as beautiful in death as she was in life, her dark hair spun up into a loose bun on the top of her head, her blue eyes gleaming as she sat down. "Long time no see."

"Calliope," Andy murmured her name so dubious, so doubtful. She had been thinking she was dreaming –which explained why her back didn't ache like the healer said it would– since she'd opened her eyes.

The demi-titan smiled and she was as radiant as a star, suiting a daughter of the titan of falling stars. "Hello, Andy," she said, "you're looking well."

Andy would've stood up then, on legs she wasn't even sure were going to be able to hold her up, but then Calliope sat down beside her.

"I know you were expecting Marlene," Calliope mentioned gently and Andy tore her eyes from hers quickly, looking out on the endless blue-green surf.

Marlene had hated the sea. Anytime they'd traveled by water she'd turned so green that it always made Andy suggest going on quests by land, but Marlene had always violently disagreed, saying she could handle it.

"But you're not allowed," Calliope added and Andy frowned, blinking furiously.

Still, it wasn't as though it was something that she wasn't expecting. That was one of the rules of the Dead; you weren't allowed to communicate directly with dead loved ones so soon after their death, it kept you from moving on.

"Calliope," the name fell from Andy's lips before she could stop it, "why did you do it all?"

"Hm?" The young woman tilted her head as she considered the daughter of Neptune. "All what?"

A scowl formed on her lips. "You know what."

Blue eyes glowed faintly in the sunlight. "I inherited a lot from my mother," Calliope said, making a general gesture towards her head, the color of her hair and her eyes both being things that she had inherited from the titan. "Nocturnal prophecy was one of those things…I knew I was going to die young, just like I knew Winter was going to die young."

Andy's heart ached thinking of the girl who'd smile at Andy behind her laptop, as white as snow but much warmer than Chione.

"I put you in my will because I knew who you were going to become," Calliope said gently, dropping her hand on top of where Andy's was resting in the sand. "Not the girl that my mother made you into, but the one you became yourself. I bought all that photography equipment because I knew it would be useful to you even more than it was to me."

Calliope smiled and it was so heartfelt as she reached out to cradle Andy's cheek in her hand. "You're a better woman than my mother could ever _dream_ of being, Andy…and I think it's time you stop blaming yourself for the deaths of others. My death wasn't your fault, neither was Winter's, or Marlene's, or all those that died in the fire that consumed Hecate House. You may be Death's lover, but you shouldn't bind yourself to our deaths and forget to live for yourself, you _deserve_ a better life."

Andy closed her eyes and leaned into the hand, but she said nothing, and the next thing she knew, her eyes were flickering open in her room at the apartment and her back ached.

* * *

Nico had already filled one sketchbook with sketches, everything from the girl of his dreams –whom he had now been starting to refer to as Muse in his head–, to lilies, to buildings, to gravestones, to a bare back riddled with scars. The last one had drawn a frown from his sister when she'd seen it.

"You have a dark imagination," was all Bianca had said about the scars.

Miss Mallory had thought it was symbolic, the harshness of the world inflicted on a young body, which Nico thought might've been very true, but he didn't think that was it completely.

When she'd suggested the paint class to him, he'd been dubious at best, but she'd changed his mind about it.

They'd started with watercolors first, which Nico didn't mind, but they weren't his favorite, and it was only when they'd gotten into acrylic paints that Nico fell completely in love.

He could spend hours upon hours just sitting in front of the canvas, his paintbrush smoothing over the canvas with varying brushstrokes.

Of course, his first few paintings weren't very good, but Nico liked to think that they'd gotten better as time wore on.

None of his paintings made much sense to Miss Mallory, of course, she thought they were a bit abstract. Nico didn't have the heart to tell her that he had such strange and vivid dreams.

Thus far he'd made a painting of: Muse stuck on a rock out at sea (or was she part of the sea? Retrospectively, Nico realized it was hard to tell), a twisting of blacks and reds that even Nico couldn't comprehend other than aligning it with the word 'Father', and lighter piece with a bunch of wispy bluish white things on its surface that made him think of souls.

The clearest piece he had was of a trident and a sword crossed where they were jutted into the ground. He still didn't know what that one meant, but he thought it could've meant "War."

He paused in painting a mix of blues on his canvas in order to look up and past the edge of his painting to the young woman standing there in a Greek _peplos_ with her dark hair curling around a golden laurel crown.

"Who're you supposed to be?" he asked out loud.

He didn't need to worry about anyone listening in; the other members of the group had long since taken a break for lunch, but Nico couldn't be bothered with that when he was in the middle of painting.

The woman smiled. "My name is Andromeda," she said, her dark eyes glittering. "You've heard it before."

Nico looked at her strangely. "No," he said with certainty before hating how doubtful his tone turned instead.

"I'm sure you'll remember eventually," the woman didn't seem all that concerned, but that only made him frown more.

This woman was acting like she knew him and Nico had never seen her before in his whole life. And still something in the back of his mind questioned that.

"Are you dead?" Nico asked her tactlessly, but, in his defense, she certainly looked dead. Not physically, but she was easily out-dated by a good few centuries…unless there was a cosplay group on campus. But when she moved she almost seemed transparent in some way.

"For quite a long time, I'm afraid to say," Andromeda agreed, canting her head slightly as if considering his reaction, though he couldn't be sure of why. "But worry not, I do have a reincarnation running around."

Nico didn't think he'd ever met someone that had confused him more.

"You really don't know who I am, do you?" Andromeda asked, appearing faintly amused. "I see that suppression potion and Eros did their work on you."

"What?" Nico asked dumbly.

"Though, knowing her, she probably intended you to _forget_ everything…I suspect it was your father that lied about the true purpose of the potion she gave you," Andromeda mused, tapping her lips with a finger thoughtfully. "She thought she was being kind, but the path to Tartarus is always paved with good intentions, something she should know now."

" _Who are you?"_ Nico demanded, befuddled.

The feral smile on her lips was better suited for someone else that Nico still couldn't quite yet name.

"I told you, my name is Andromeda," she said, "Princess of Aethiopia and Queen of Mycenae."

Nico's jaw dropped.

* * *

Jamie Corsack would've been a great spy, that was something she'd decided when she was eleven years old, or an assassin, Jamie had never really cared which, since both required being as silent as possible and as deadly.

At fifteen Jamie was even better at the silence that she'd been born with as the child of the goddess of silence, Angerona.

She missed the warmth of her bed and the sounds of her bunkmates around her, and the smells in the air that were inexplicably New Rome.

Jamie hadn't been back to New Rome since Andy and the group of sea-based demigods and legacies had diverted that wave, Matthew had sent her out right afterwards and she couldn't disagree with his reasoning.

If their enemies were gathering, they needed to know, and Jamie would be _damned_ if she let Michael Ferin slip through her fingers.

Enough demigods and legacies had already paid the price for Saturn's meddling, and Matthew and Andy were so very close to throwing the spear into the symbolic patch of earth within the Temple of Bellona, the sure declaration of war.

Their resolve wouldn't last much longer, not when their enemies were gathering strength. Rome _would_ endure, even if Jamie had to drag it kicking and screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jamie's a relatively minor character, but you'll see her pop up from time to time. In other news, Nico's discovered acrylic paints and Andromeda, and Perseus isn't the only one good at being cryptic.


	15. Moving On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of excitement about Nico meeting Andromeda (the first), but they'll probably mostly be background characters, as this is mostly Andy's story.
> 
> Sorry for the long wait, but nursing school is a nightmare and I'm mostly obsessed with a few of my other fics, but I'm going to try to update everything that hasn't been yet.

She seemed almost smaller when she was asleep. Of course, her height wasn't very impressive to begin with, but Andy was still young, still growing.

Andy breathed in and out deeply, her arms curled under the pillow, lying prone so that her undoubtedly still aching back wouldn't be pressed against the mattress.

The hellhound-hybrid on the floor lifted his head to survey Neptune with watchful red eyes, before dropping his head once more when he was certain that his mistress wasn't in harm's way.

Neptune bent down to brush a light kiss to the top of her head that had Andy stirring slightly, but never awakening, and he turned suddenly at the sound of the door opening and found himself gazing at his old lover, Sally.

"Pos—" She paused, cheeks red. "Neptune," she corrected quietly, glancing towards her daughter, a look that Neptune recognized as an intense maternal desire.

His head ached to split at how she'd almost called him by his Greek aspect, but he pushed it aside until it faded and Sally opened the door a bit further to allow him to move past her, and then she shut Andy's door as quietly as she could.

"She seems better," Neptune said out loud and Sally's face softened somewhat.

"The procedure helped," Sally agreed, sitting down on the couch in the living room, with Neptune being respectful enough to keep his distance. "The scarring isn't as significant as it used to be, and I think that's what she cared about most."

"Good," Neptune said, his lips twisting faintly. His wife had always found it difficult to deal with the idea of his mortal children, her Greek aspect even more so, but even she had found what had been done to Andy as a child horrifying. "I wish none of that had happened to her."

Sally gave a small chuckle. "Sorry," she said, unable to help herself, "it's just that Percy said the same thing to her before they put her under."

The edge of his lips twitched just enough for her to know that he was pleased to know that. There was a sudden whistling that had Sally jumping to her feet in order to pour some tea out into two cups, offering him one as well, and he took it, simply holding it between his hands.

"I hear Harry's aunt gave you full custody," he said conversationally and Sally's eyes darkened.

"Dreadful woman," she muttered, "you would think that she'd care more about raising her sister's son, but I guess not."

"I think it's more that he was a reminder of everything she hates," Neptune grimaced. Roslyn, Lily and Petunia's mother, had been separated briefly from her husband when she'd met Poseidon. Her husband had always known at Lily wasn't his, but he'd loved her all the same, and for that, he had the god's respect. But Petunia had been less forgiving when she'd discovered the same. "He's happier here, I can tell."

Sally spared him a smile and his eyes fell to the table where a binder had been placed a bit haphazardly. He turned it towards him.

"Oh, that's Andy's portfolio," Sally informed him, "she's gotten really into photography in the past few weeks."

His eyes trained on each slide with interest. Most of them were landscapes, areas within the boundaries of Camp Jupiter, with some city photos, and a few pictures of people. There was a black and white picture of a girl with her bow drawn back to her jaw, her expression fierce –Carmella, the daughter of Venus that Sally had adopted.

And there was one where Andy must've turned the camera on herself, because all he could see were her arms, her hands holding up the camera, her smile impossibly wide.

"She looks more like you every day," Neptune said and Sally turned pink and then her expression became confused because the next thing she knew, he'd vanished into the wind with the only indication that he'd been there in the first place being the still steaming cup of tea on the table and Andy's portfolio wide open.

* * *

"How's your back feel?"

"It aches," Andy admitted, wincing as her mother helped her pull her shirt over her head in order for her to step into the bath, the cool water being a welcome change to her sore skin. "Does it look better?"

Sally's lips thinned into a line as she looked over her daughter's back, but the lines on her back were not quite as garish or broad as they had been before. "Yes," she said finally, "they look _much_ better."

Andy turned around, twisting her head around to look at her bare back. Sally watched her face, but she didn't see a change there, no disappointment, no elation.

"I suppose I could always get a huge tattoo to cover it," Andy considered aloud and Sally was quick to shoot that down.

"Not until you're eighteen," she said and Andy laughed before shooing her mother out of the bathroom. "Okay, okay, just yell if you need help with anything, all right?"

"I _promise,"_ Andy said, shaking her head before starting the water up.

She washed out her hair first before settling down into the cool water, soothing her back, just laying there and staring at the ceiling. It was still so strange to think of Nox Bacchry as dead, after all these years, years of terrible nightmares that had only recently been decreasing in their constancy.

Andy sank further into the water. Marlene had always said she'd kill him with her bare hands if she ever saw him; Marlene had deserved to live a full life far more than Nox Bacchry deserved to die, and that was saying something because Andy really hated Bacchry, even death couldn't rob him of that.

It had taken her years to snap back after Bacchry, and she was going to be damned if he robbed her of the rest of her life.

* * *

"You're saying you won't let me get an undercut?" was the first thing Remus Lupin heard when the door was answered.

"Sirius," the woman beyond it was smiling, her eyes blue and brown hair just beginning to gray, a few strands here and there, bound in a tight ponytail, "here to see your _tempestuous little sister?"_ The last three words were directed inwards and got her a muffled complaint in reply.

"Just checking up," Sirius grinned lightly before pulling Remus a bit more into view. "This is my old friend, Remus Lupin, he's a friend of James too. I thought I'd introduce him to some of the family."

Sally rolled her eyes good-naturedly before holding out a hand to Remus. "I'm Sally Jackson, Harry's adoptive mother, and I'm his step-sister's mother, it's complicated, I won't bore you with the details…please come in."

Sirius stepped past her easily to spot the girl on the couch surrounded by pictures and parchment, seemingly engrossed. "How's her back?" he asked Sally quietly as she shut the door behind them both.

Eyes glanced to where her daughter was sitting. "The scars are significantly reduced," she admitted, "but her back's a little sore, so she's trying not to move a lot."

"You all right, Andy?" Sirius called and Remus blinked as the head twisted towards him.

" _Sirius!"_ Andy grinned widely. "Can you tell Mum that I should be allowed to get an undercut?"

Sally sighed loudly and Sirius arched an eyebrow. "I have no idea what that is, Andy."

"Oh, well its—"

" _Not important,"_ Sally cut across her quickly, moving through kitchen, her American flag-themed work attire for her job at Sweet on America the brightest thing in the room. "Sweetie, if you still want to get your hair cut in a month, I'll take you all to get haircuts before school starts."

Andy sulked.

" _And_ I forgot to mention, your father came by when you were asleep," Sally added, almost as an afterthought, pulling her phone from where it had been charging in the wall and stuffing it into her purse and Andy goggled at her.

"What d'you mean _Father_ came by when I was asleep?" she demanded. "He hardly ever leaves Olympus or Atlantis unless it's to give me cryptic advice!"

Remus looked to Sirius, completely confused, but Sirius only shook his head, not bothering to explain anything, which left Remus even more confused, because he knew just about nothing about these people, other than Sally was Andy's biological mother and Andy was the step-sister that got Sirius a second chance at life. Of course, he hadn't been expecting her to look quite like that. He'd seen her face in that picture that Sirius had, obviously, but her hair was such a strange color for one so young that he'd thought maybe it was the light but it was clear now that he hadn't been mistaken.

A tangle of white and blue curls was an odd choice of hair color, but the shattered green eyes were haunting.

"He says you look more like me every day," Sally laughed and Andy wrinkled her nose in aggravation. "Oh, and he looked at your portfolio."

A flush of color spread across Andy's cheeks at that. "He did _what?_ What did he _say?"_

"Nothing," Sally's eyes glittered, "but he looked like he liked them."

"Oh, that's no _good,"_ Andy grumbled under her breath, "that's helpful, he could've _hated_ them for all you know."

"Oh, don't worry so much, sweetie," Sally said with a chuckle, "he _liked_ the photos."

She came forward to bend down and feather a kiss to her daughter's brow. "I've got to get to work, but if you need anything, call, Sirius knows his way back to his apartment."

Sirius spared Sally a slight smile at that. "I'll keep an eye on her."

"I don't _need_ an eye kept on me," Andy grumbled but her mother ignored her, waving farewell as the door shut. "She worries too much," she added once her mother had gone and Sirius approached to sit in the chair opposite her. "I can run a grown man through with a sword, I think I can manage being on my own for a few hours."

Remus' eyebrows arched high on his forehead, but Sirius appeared unsurprised, reaching over to pet at the mass of black around Andy's ankles and Remus was surprised to see it was a hulking wolf of some kind, too large to be a dog, that was for sure.

"How're you Aeton?" he asked the thing calmly and it barked in reply.

"He's annoyed that I stepped on his tail this morning," Andy supplied for him before turning her eyes on his companion. "Who's your friend?"

Sirius grinned, curling his fingers towards Remus who had been lingering a bit further back. "This is Remus Lupin, I think I told you about him…"

Andy bobbed her head in understanding. "I'm Andy," she supplied, eyes cutting to the hound of some kind, "I've got a long and complicated name, but I prefer Andy."

Sirius gave a suspicious cough. "Andromeda Atalanta Jackson-Black."

She glared at him. "And this is my familiar, Aeton. He's a wolf-hellhound hybrid."

"A _what?"_ Remus asked faintly. He was familiar with many dark creatures, after all, that had been his specialization within Defense Against the Darks, but it did help when you were one yourself.

"He's a spawn of Cerberus, the three-headed guard of the Underworld," Andy rolled her eyes and the hackles of the hound rose suddenly, teeth bared with a growl parting from its lips. "He says you reek like a lycanthrope."

The blood left his face in an instant and Sirius made a reproachful noise in the back of his throat.

"Calm down, Aeton, he's Sirius' friend," Andy hummed towards the beast, running her fingers through his fur. "Not all lycanthropes are bad. He doesn't smell like a child of Lycaon, does he?"

Aeton gave a sort of grumbling whine but relented.

"Sorry about him," Andy said with a grimace towards Remus, "his kind is known for being territorial."

"And ripping your throat out," Sirius added with a malevolent grin and Andy glowered at her step-brother.

"I bet you're a _real_ hit at parties," she complained loudly.

"Ah," his eyes gleamed, "but I come bearing gifts." And from his pocket he procured a bottle of Butterbeer.

"You have your virtues," Andy conceded, taking the bottle from him, opening it in a second squeezing her hand around it tightly and Remus saw frost spread around the bottle from her hand.

"I'm confused," Remus said, this time more to Sirius, "how is she your step-sister? I thought your parents were dead?"

"Oh, they are _definitely_ dead," Andy agreed coldly before taking a petulant sip of the drink.

"My mother kidnapped Andy when she was a few weeks old and blood-adopted her," Sirius explained as delicately as possible.

"We hate her," Andy agreed conversationally.

"I have so many questions," Remus muttered to himself, sinking into one of the chairs. "I don't think there's enough time in the day to get to them all."

Sirius spared him a laugh before returning his attention to Andy. "How's Harry doing at camp?"

That drew Remus' attention back to the girl. "Last I heard he was making a lot of spare arrows, like he's worried about monsters getting through the camp borders, which isn't like getting into Camp Half-blood, we're more ruthless about our protective barriers, even without the Golden Fleece." Andy pursed her lips. "But if recent intel is to be _believed_ …there could be a skirmish soon."

Remus was easily lost, but Sirius was listening intently. "Is he going to be all right there?" he asked in concern. "At camp, if there might be skirmish?"

Andy gave him a dry look. "Experience hones skill," she intoned like she was repeating someone, "of _course,_ the archers would be in the back to begin with…at the moment we have less than _five_." She rolled her eyes again. "It's too ' _Greek'_ for us, apparently. I swear if I hear Octavian speak to me about something being too Greek, I'm going to _stab_ him with my _trident."_

For a second she reminded Remus of the last green-eyed person he'd seen. Lily had a vicious streak, but only when it was well deserved. It was hard to tell with Andy if she was the same.

"I've got to get this done before I see Matthew," Andy added, looking down at clutter of pictures around her.

"We'll leave you alone," Sirius assured quickly, "just knock if you need anything, I still owe you."

Andy glared and shooed him with her fingers and he gave another laugh before aborting a squeeze to her shoulder in favor of her arm.

"It was nice to meet you," Andy said to Remus with a smile and he said much the same before following his old friend out, chancing a glance back to where she was resting against the couch, a pillow soft against her back and he could've sworn that there was a definite redness to her skin there, and a harsh line amidst the red.

"She's more than that, isn't she?" Remus asked once the door closed. "She's not just Harry's adoptive sister or your step-sister." The way she'd made that Butterbeer ice up was proof enough of that.

"She's Lily's half-sister, actually," Sirius said frowning. "Complicated family, she's got since dear old mum blood-adopted her. But it helps when you're the daughter of the Roman god of the sea, Neptune."

Remus gaped.

* * *

Reyna saw her first. She probably wouldn't have if she hadn't been heading to the arena to practice, but Reyna needed practice; after seeing what Jason and Andy had been capable of on their quest, she knew she was severely outclassed.

Andy had her trident in one hand and her sword in the other, practicing one-handed maneuvers at the same time. Most people in camp generally only have a single weapon, partially because they were so low on Imperial Gold weaponry, and also because it took more skill to use two, especially with each being a different weapon; mid-range and close-combat in Andy's case.

"Don't you _ever_ take a day off?" Reyna asked her loudly and Andy turned towards her with an arched eyebrow.

"I took two days off," Andy pointed out.

"You know what I mean," Reyna scoffed, rolling her eyes for good measure. "Don't you ever relax? Just do nothing for a little while?"

"If I wanted to relax, I'd be taking photographs," Andy said a smile on her lips and Reyna thought that in itself was an odd choice, because Andy seemed like the kind of girl that was only relaxed when she was killing monsters, that was what she was good at.

"Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you always like it."

Reyna flushed, not realizing she'd spoken out loud, but Andy gave her a slight smile. "Do you know the name Calliope Evans?"

"No," Reyna said honestly.

"She was an old friend of mine," Andy said, her eyes soft and sad, and Reyna knew that the past tense wasn't a slip. "She left me all this photography equipment…she always knew me better than anyone else."

"I thought Carmella knew you best," Reyna couldn't help but voice, since it certainly seemed that way.

"Carm knows me very well, obviously." Andy's eyes glittered. "But Calliope always seemed to know what was best for me before I did."

"Didn't you ever think about being something different?" Reyna inquired, her heel twisting in the ground.

"I wanted to be the equivalent of a cop for the magical community," Andy admitted wryly and Reyna arched an eyebrow. "Funny, right? _Me_ as a _cop._ But I wasn't very inventive when I was younger."

Reyna focused on her hands, how they held the trident and sword, noting the thick black bracelets that she's never seen Andy without them, and Reyna was almost certain there was a mark or a scar there that she didn't want anyone, least of all herself, to see.

"I like photography more," Andy said agreeably. "There's something about catching a single moment on film that's appealing. And it's _all_ Calliope's fault."

"You don't sound too angry about that," Reyna pointed out.

"Well, _no,"_ Andy laughed, bringing the weapons to her wrist that held her charms on a strap of leather and the weapons shrunk before their eyes until she could clip them back on. "What about you? Anything you'd want to be?"

Reyna honestly hadn't thought about it. She'd worked for Circe for a little while but being the sorceress' attendant wasn't really something to aspire to be. "I'll figure it out, eventually," she mumbled, faintly embarrassed.

"Well, you don't need to know now," Andy snorted and Reyna opened her mouth to ask her something, to ask her if she'd be willing to work with her so she could get some training with her spear, but the words never quite left her mouth.

Andy had her demons just as Reyna had her own; would she really even want to train someone like her? Reyna could think of at least twelve reasons why not to.

Luckily, her name was called suddenly and Reyna looked back to see a fellow Centurion beckoning her and she moved to follow hi, when Andy spoke behind her.

"Reyna, tomorrow, bright and early," she said, eyes glinting, "if you're up for it."

And Reyna walked away with a definite spring in her step, and with her silky hair swinging from side to side in its ponytail and Andy watched her go.

"She's cute," Carmella pointed out as she came to stand next to Andy, "looks like she's your type, too."

That had Andy scoffing loudly. " _Please."_

"You're telling me that you _don't_ think she's cute?" One delicately arched eyebrow and Andy rubbed at the back of her head, turning faintly pink.

"Well, I suppose," she mumbled under her breath and Carmella actually laughed.

"Dark hair and eyes seems to be your favorite combo," her sister said with a devilish glint in her eye to match the grin and that made the heat rush to her face in full force.

And that was when she shoved aggressively at Carmella's shoulder with one hand while using the second one to hide her face, waiting for her skin to cool. "You're _terrible."_

Carmella grinned at her and Andy blew out a loud breath, rubbing at her chest where Cupid's arrow had hit her. Andy wasn't really in hurry to get into another relationship after how her last one had ended, though she had to admit that whatever she'd had with Nico had been rather mild with hand-holding and mostly kisses on cheeks. "So, did you want to spar? Or practice your archery?"

"Better not." Andy wrinkled her nose thinking of the last time she'd fired an arrow. She still had the Bow of Andromeda tucked away in the deepest parts of her bag, but she hadn't touched it since they'd returned from Mycenae. "I need your help with something, actually."

Violet eyes considered her. "What kind of something?"

"Tracking."

That got Carmella's interest. Tracking had been her primary skill that she'd learned alongside archery, mostly because both were seen with hunting and Carmella had admired Diana, goddess of the hunt when she was a young child.

"What d'you need me to track?" Carmella asked instead, crossing her arms even as Andy kept her eyes in the distance, watching campers move easily, unafraid of anything beyond the boundaries.

"Jamie Corsack has been following the demigods and legacies that have left camp to fight for the other side," Andy said, her fingers playing with the charms on the strap of leather around her wrist. "She went dark a few days ago…I want you to go help her."

"You're worried," Carmella noticed.

"Matthew's got a bad feeling about this and I'm—" Andy paused, searching for the appropriate word. "I'm _uneasy_ …I would've sent someone else, but you're the best."

Carmella appreciated that, but her head and heart were still a mess after everything, after Evaine's actions and Marlene's death, right now the only reason she was sticking around camp was for Andy and Harry's benefit (and maybe to see Fred, but she didn't think she was crushing as hard on him as she once was). Andy was trying to move on, but Carmella knew she wasn't going to get over Marlene or Evaine's deaths in a hurry.

Maybe some time away from camp was what she needed.

"I'll do it," she said without even thinking. "I'll report back when I've found something…mind if I borrow your familiar?" Aeton was an excellent tracker.

"He could use the exercise," Andy spared her a grin and Carmella darted forward to hug her tightly before clasping her forearm tightly as the Romans did and Andy watched her run off to collect a few things before leaving.

Andy breathed out sharply, locking her fingers over her wrists, watching her sister go and wonder if she should've picked someone else, but there was no one better. Her fingers brushed against the coiled bracelet that had once belonged to Calliope Evans. She swallowed thickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are any of my characters straight anymore? The short answer is probably no. Andy does have a type, but she won't be dating anyone. It's still a little ways out before the girls make their way to Hogwarts, and I'm debating Carmella being into someone else, so we'll see how that goes.
> 
> It might be awhile before the next update.


	16. The Hunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep up the hype for when Andy and Nico eventually meet, because that's going to be amazing and awkward, but it's still awhile out. :)

Nico drew and painted, and he listened to Andromeda. She was a strange sort of fixture in his life now, like a ghostly presence only he could see and only he could hear. She had stories, so  _many_ stories, some of which he wasn't entirely certain were true. But the ones where her words came out bitter he knew were true, like how she'd been discovered sneaking onto a ship heading for battle dressed as a man (not to be confused with the first time when no one had suspected her until her husband had seen her skill with the bow) by her husband and was dragged back to the castle and locked in a tower until the ships were out to see.

"Of course, by that time I'd realized I was, in fact, with child," Andromeda had added almost as an afterthought with a frown and Nico tried not snort at that.

Andromeda was a bit of an oddity, and she was the worst wingman he'd ever met, pointing out every green-eyed person in a mile radius. "Trust me," she'd said, "green eyes is definitely your type."

Nico had turned bright pink when she'd said that. Andromeda was so impossible and difficult and he always felt that she knew more than she was letting on. Like she knew how his story would end before it had even begun.

"Life is hard," Andromeda said once while he sketched a fountain into his sketchbook. "But there are some things that make it worth the toils." Her eyes had twinkled and she had winked.

It was getting closer to the school year and the lawyers that were apparently in charge of Nico and Bianca's parents' estate made sure to remind them that they would be attending Westover Hall, a magical boarding school that was more militant than anything else, but it wasn't like they really had a choice in the matter.

He still remembered when she'd said the first time they'd met:  _"Knowing her, she probably intended you to forget everything…I suspect it was your father that lied about the true purpose of the potion she gave you. She thought she was being kind, but the path to Tartarus is always paved with good intentions, something she should know now."_ And he still had no idea what to make of those words.

Nico shuffled his Myth-o-magic cards in his hands, taking a break from sketching a Greek statue into the sketchbook. He had done so many sketches now, his art slowly improving, but practice made perfect. He was starting to like painting far more, he liked mixing the colors together with the palette knife, he liked that he was expressing himself in a way that would make people stop and look at the painting and wonder at the feeling behind it.

Nico paused over the Poseidon card, frowning for good measure, feeling like he was remembering a half-forgotten dream, but even he couldn't remember what it was.

* * *

Carmella had mud crusting her pants with a smear of blood and dirt on one cheek, mingling with sweat and her golden-brown plait had long since become ratty, but Carmella Jackson was in her element. True, these days she preferred healing to tracking, but tracking was the thing that had caught her eye initially.

She sank to one knee, examining the print made into the ground with Aeton sniffing at it, a low whine in the back of his throat. Unfortunately, Carmella never quite knew what to make of his noises; Andy was the only one that seemed to understand him, but that made sense, after all, he  _was_  her familiar.

Tracking was a hard job, but tracking someone who made a habit of being silent? That was  _incredibly_ difficult. Jamie Corsack, daughter of the goddess of silence, Angerona, herself was rather curious, but Carmella had only met her a few times. She was a pretty girl, a  _very_  pretty girl, with dark gleaming skin and eyes so grey that they were almost silver and far too knowing. She had fought with a gladius when Carmella had seen her, but there were some rumors that she'd lost the weapon. Some people found it off putting how reliant she was on sign language or writing her own responses and questions which Carmella thought was  _ridiculous._  Sign language was just another language and it was one that could be learned. Really, Jamie had the most thankless job and probably the highest mortality rate, but Carmella had seen what she'd sent back; she'd done great reconnaissance.

Carmella was going to have a lot of trouble finding her, and she'd been tracking the daughter of Angerona for more than a week now.

"Ready?" Carmella asked Aeton and the hellhound-hybrid knelt to permit her to sit astride. Andy always seemed so comfortable sitting on Aeton's back, but somehow Carmella never seemed to find the right spot where sitting too long wouldn't begin to bother her. They only shadow-travelled for short stretches, especially when they were being careful not to be noticed by any potential enemies, and Carmella was trying her hardest not to wear out Aeton. The hellhound-hybrid had a habit of vanishing for a few hours, whether to rest in the Underworld or to chow down on some monster, Carmella had no idea.

There was the familiar cold and crawling sensation along her skin as they shot into darkness and shadow and Carmella kept a tight grip on his fur, gritting her teeth at just how jarring the sensation was, but the next thing she knew they'd popped back out into sunlight once more and she dismounted again to shaky legs. Carmella had no idea how Andy could handle it so well, but every time made Carmella prefer to keep her feet on the ground, if at all possible.

As soon as her feet were so, Aeton sank into the shadows, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and it was only when he had gone that a hand slapped over her mouth and an arm locked around her waist, jerking her back and fear spiked in Carmella's veins. She wasn't as good as Andy at this, at being a fierce demigod so wolfish it was uncanny, never going anywhere without a weapon, paranoid and, for the most part, untrusting from her experiences.

Carmella did what Jacksons did best, she fought against the hands and the grip, but the person holding her dragged her against a nearby tree, finally allowing her to glimpse the attacker and Carmella positively relaxed.

It was Jamie keeping her hand over Carmella's mouth, pressing a finger to her lips to indicate silence. Then she pointed with her other hand to just close to where Carmella had been standing.

Carmella frowned at it, but all she could see was grass and dirt.

Jamie appeared to heave a heavy sigh, though no noise escaped her. She brought her hands together before shooting them out again, miming an explosion and Carmella's eyes bulged, looking past her shoulder.

"A land mine?" she whispered and Jamie nodded seriously, leaning back away from her and Carmella was startled to realize that she hadn't noticed how close they were standing; she felt uncommonly warm.

She pulled out a well-worn notepad and pen and wrote on a page filled with words:  _The traitors are covering their tracks. The last mine killed my eagle._

Carmella nodded seriously. "Andy sent me to find you because they'd lost contact with you."

Jamie frowned, writing out:  _I'm getting closer, but they keep moving faster than I can get a tracker on them._

"Any ideas where they'll strike?" Carmella asked and Jamie scrawled something else on the paper.

 _Follow me, exactly_ , she warned.  _They've got mines everywhere._

Carmella swallowed, thinking of Marlene's body wrapped in a crimson shroud with Mars' symbol painted onto it, thinking of Evaine and how she had caused so many deaths by spying for Saturn. This was war, really, they'd been at war for awhile now and it was only now just catching up to them.

So she complied and followed after Jamie, slowly and carefully, uneasy with her heart racing in her chest.

They walked further into the forest that Carmella had been skirting around in the attempts to follow what she'd hoped were Jamie's footsteps, and then Jamie pulled her through the flap of a tent. It wasn't magically enlarged like some of the tents Carmella had seen, though it was adequately large enough for the both of them, but Jamie couldn't use magic. Carmella had certainly never seen her display gifts like other demigods, like Andy's use of ice or water, like Jason using the air around him, like Carmella charming people into giving her things, into helping her. Carmella slid in after her, sitting on the bunched up sleeping bag as Jamie showed her the pictures she'd taken with Michael Ferin prominent in most of them.

"Lay it on me," Carmella said stiffly and Jamie smiled, pulling out her notepad once more and beginning to write.

* * *

"Are you sleeping better?"Emile Cross asked Andy sat across from her in the bright room in the hospital.

"A bit," Andy had to admit, but nightmares of Nox Bacchry weren't something you just got over, even when he was no longer around. And the spot he'd vacated had been taken by Michael Ferin who'd been far more involved in Andy's capture and torture more than she'd imagined, who'd tried to shoot her and nearly killed Jason.

"And you went ahead with the scar reduction?" Emile smiled slightly. "Do you feel different now?"

Andy frowned thoughtfully. Her back had long since stopped aching, but the scars remained, though not as obvious or as rough as they had been before, still lines and ridges where flesh had been split, had been ruined. "Not really," she said after a moment. "I mean, they're always going to be there, but Mum says I can't get a tattoo over it until I'm legal."

Emile released a short chuckle. "Yes, it might be good to wait on tattoos for awhile yet, Andy."

Andy's lips curved briefly.

"You said that you sent your sister off on a solo mission the last time you were here…did you find that difficult?"

"I didn't think she wanted to stick around all that much," Andy said honestly, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "After what…after what  _happened_ , I thought she'd jump at the chance to leave. I'd been holding back on asking her to track down a demigod because—"

"Because you didn't want her to leave," Emile realized and Andy nodded a bit somberly.

"I wasn't there for M-Marlene's shroud burning," Andy stumbled over her friend's name, "and once I came out of a coma, all I've wanted to do is  _work_ , keeping myself busy because I'm afraid if I don't I'm just going to…I don't know, completely breakdown." Andy didn't think she'd ever been close to breaking down before, except when she'd been in the hospital after escaping Mycenae, having to explain that Asteria was the one that had caused all of her misery.

"It's not a bad thing to mourn the fallen, Andy," Emile spoke gently, her eyes kind, but Andy still burned.

_"Is dying…pain-nful?"_

_Andy gritted her teeth together, trying not to let how her lower lip trembled show. "I died a very long time ago," she told her friend throatily, "and it was a suicide."_

_She remembered the feel of the dagger in her hand as she ripped it through her side, only to pull it out, letting the blood pool from the wound as she lay in front of her husband's funeral pyre._

_But Marlene's eyes were imploring._

_"No," she said, "it's like falling asleep."_

_Marlene smiled. "G-good."_

"I should've known," Andy muttered, pressing a hand to her brow, still feeling the weight of Marlene's body on her own, her hands wet and warm with her blood.

"You're not all-seeing and all-knowing, Andy, sometimes you put your trust in the wrong people…the best thing you can do is learn from them."

And those words stuck with Andy even after she left the hospital to return to Camp Jupiter, staying awake well into the night.

As praetor, Andy had one of the two praetor houses to herself, but she would never go so far as to say that it was really a house, it was more like a huge bedroom with a softer bed than the  _probatios_ , centurions, and senators got. It had been empty for the longest time and sometimes her skin still tingled to know that it had once belonged to Michael Ferin. She burned those sheets on the first day and had Kreacher bring her new ones (privately, she thought the house-elf was glad to have something to do).

Andy's house was very sparse, but she'd never really looked in Matthew's to know what his looked like, she didn't think it was appropriate to ask. All she had was a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a bag or two, with her trident propped against the wall, and her photography equipment piled in a corner.

Andy sat on the floor, popping one of the camera's open to withdraw the film, tucking it safely into a film canister and returning it to the other canisters that she had, before her fingers lingered on a rubberbanded group of photos.

She pulled the band off it and looked down at the contents.

The first one was before Bacchry had her kidnapped, her green eyes clear, not shattered like glass or holding shadows behind them, and her arms thrown over Marlene and Carmella's shoulders with one of Marlene's arms wrapping around Evaine. They were all smiling in the picture, Andy would've never have known that Evaine was planted there knowing that she would eventually betray them. She wondered how Evaine could've slept at night after all the death and destruction she had caused. And sometimes she wondered if Athena knew how far her daughter had been warped to do the bidding to Saturn.

Fingers creased the picture until Evaine was hidden within the fold and then they ripped it in two, leaving only the good memories, the three friends that had been loyal to the end, separating them from the traitor that had ripped away the life of one of the three.

Andy ripped all the picture apart, ridding Evaine from each and every one of them in a sudden fit of anger.

"You ruined  _everything!"_  she hissed to the frozen pictures of the smiling traitor, throwing them into the unlit fireplace before she fell back into the bed and sobbed into her pillows as she finally let loose the pain and sadness. Carmella had cried often but Andy had limited her bawling her heart out because there'd been so much to do, so much to force herself to do to keep her mind off it. She cried until she was spent, lying on the bed, curled up with eyes red and cheeks raw from rubbing.

The four of them had something special, and now both Evaine and Marlene were gone and Andy and Carmella were drifting farther and farther apart. Andy didn't know what to do. She couldn't very well keep her adoptive sister with her just to make herself happy, and Carmella had jumped at the chance to run off to find Jamie Corsack.

Andy looked through the darkness to where the desk sat, looking to where the small statue of Justitia, the goddess of justice and fair judgments had fallen to the ground. It was the last gift Asteria had given Andy before she'd found out all that she'd done, the horrors she'd had done at Andy and (though she loathed to admit it) Bacchry.

" _A great warrior can be just,"_ Asteria had said. _"_ _You've just never had the opportunity to be such before. It is simpler to be a fighter with morals or good and evil but you know better. What kind of legacy do you wish to leave behind? The Wolf is cutthroat and ruthless, but the Diplomat can be reasonable."_

Asteria's wisdom burned through her like being struck with a hot poker and Andy wished it still didn't ache to know that she'd put her trust in the wrong person twice. She'd confided in Asteria so much, and look where it had gotten her.

Andy closed her eyes and thought about what Percy had said once, about wishing she'd grown up beside him and for the first time, she wished whole-heartedly the very same.

* * *

"Mattthew…do you think I'm doing well? As praetor, I mean?" Andy asked him the next day when she was watching Reyna perform a few exercises, her javelin in hand, her dark braid rippling with each movement. Briefly Andy thought of what Carmella had said about Andy having a type. She would be lying if she said that Nico was the only one that caught her eye, but Andy knew she wasn't an easy person to love. Boys and girls and everyone in between were nice to look at but relationships took  _work_  and after how her first, and, at this rate, probably  _last_ , relationship had ended, Andy was understandably wary.

"Of course," Matthew said, his eyes clear and honest. Of the two of them, he looked the most like the praetor they both were, though he had been at it longer, so it made a bit of sense, but he was also the only one of the two of them that was actually wearing the purple toga with the armor. "Training recruits is important, Andy, even now,  _especially_  now."

Andy pursed her lips thoughtfully before turning to look at him fully. "Then I think we should be telling the rest of them about the number of campers that have joined Saturn's cause."

That earned her a sharp look from Matthew. "You honestly think that's wise? That could cause more to leave."

"Wouldn't it be better for them to hear it from us than from some Saturn-recruiter?" Andy pointed out without blinking, her tone shrewd and the muscles in his shoulders tightened like he was preparing for a fight, but then his shoulders slumped and he pressed a hand against his brow. "You know they're planning for an assault based on what Jamie's sent back. They need to know." She stressed the words. There was a time when he ranked above her, but not anymore. They were on the same level and she had about as much pull as Matthew did.

"All right," Matthew conceded finally. "We'll tell them…tomorrow."

Andy gave a short nod before striding forward towards where Reyna was still practicing.

"What was that about?" she asked her once Andy got close and Andy took that to mean that she'd taken notice of her and Matthew speaking quietly off to the side.

"Praetor business," Andy said instead. Rumors spread like wildfire around camp and it was better to keep her mouth shut until tomorrow. "You'll all figure it out soon."

Reyna's brow furrowed in confusion but then Andy pointed out, "Your strikes are getting better, but you need a bit of a tighter jab." And with that said, Andy pulled at a charm on her leather bracelet and Reyna stared as an Imperial Gold dagger lengthened before her eyes.

"Here," Andy said, holding it out to her and Reyna paused before taking it.

"What's this for?" Reyna asked.

Calliope's coiled bracelet felt heavy at Andy's wrist. "I've got more than enough weapons," Andy said with a simple shrug. Most of them were secured to the strap of leather around her wrist, but there was one knife tucked into her boot and another strapped to her thigh, the dagger that had once belonged to Andromeda. "I figured you could use it a bit more. I'm not using it and you might need something a bit shorter in the War Games today."

Reyna's eyes narrowed suspiciously as Jason jogged over to join them. "Are you playing in the War Games?"

Jason snorted. "She can't. She's one of the praetors, that'd give some unfair advantage to Fourth Cohort."

Andy threw a sour glare in his direction. "That's what they said  _every time_  I actually wanted to play back when I was a senator."

"When you were a goddess," Jason coughed and Andy punched him in the arm.  _"Hey!"_

" _Ugh,"_  Andy complained before lamenting, "I miss all those times where I could still threaten to stab you."

"You still do that," Jason pointed out, jabbing a finger sharply into her shoulder and Reyna smile threatened to split her face as she watched them squabble like siblings. Jason and Andy were a rather strange pair, even she couldn't deny that, even stranger was listening to them talk about when they weren't friends. To her, they'd seemed rather like best friends who had become friends when they first started toddling. She couldn't imagine becoming grudging allies that blossomed into friends because she was stuck in Tartarus with someone she hated.

"Don't make me  _freeze_  you!"

"Don't make me  _shock_  you!"

And Reyna couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

 _You could report this all back to Andy and Matthew_ , Jamie suggested to Carmella once she'd finished explaining everything to her and Carmella read those words off her paper after Carmella got through shooting an arrow through the eye socket of an Empousa which had tried to sneak up on them, and it gave a loud scream as it crumpled into dust. Jamie had blood staining her pants now and Carmella had a new scratch on her arm.

So, instead, Carmella reached back into her backpack and pulled free Marlene's faithful sword, Peleus, that granted victory to the wielder, that had betrayed her in her most desperate hour. Carmella hated the sword for the longest time. Marlene had possessed it for the longest time, but it couldn't shield her from death.

"Even weapons can be overcome," her mother, Venus, had told her once when she'd been sitting at the shoreline of the Tiber River, back when she was still waiting for Andy to reappear from its depths. "Do not blame the weapon for the wielder's hand." She'd been so angry at her mother for that, for suggesting that she blame Marlene for her own death, but now she could concede that if she hadn't been holding it at the time, it couldn't very well have protected her. Marlene's faith in Evaine protecting her back was what had ultimately led to her death, something Carmella didn't like to think about.

Carmella held it out to Jamie and she blinked in surprise before gingerly taking the weapon from her, weighing it in her hand before giving it a few swings. "I'm not sure you could live without me," she told the silent demigod and Jamie's eyes glittered and she smiled in such a way that made Carmella's mouth dry in a way Fred never had. "Besides, I'm more useful out here, with  _you."_

Jamie nodded seriously, but the smile remained. She took up her pen again and wrote:  _Ready to hunt some traitors?_

Carmella grinned widely. "Absolutely," she said and took Jamie's extended hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely no one is straight in this fic and Jamie is going to be in the fic a bit more than I'd originally intended and you'll see why in a couple of chapters, or you know, you could always guess ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr @greygryffindor


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